Lokomotiv’s roster did not include Kirill Temirov, for whom the bump into Astana players in the previous happened to hurt a bit. UNICS, compared to our last encounter with them, got Tony Taylor and Jalen Reynolds back in the lineup.
Patrick Miller opened the scoring in the 11th second, but UNICS, which at that time had not yet lost their chance to win the regular championship, scored 7 points in a row in response, 5 of which by Andrey Lopatin. Vladislav Yemchenko tried not to let the opponent run far, but the Kazan team dominated the rebounds at these minutes – Ismaël Bako, Reynolds and Lopatin won the ball on our shield one time after another, which allowed UNICS to lead 19:10 at some point. But Danil Sheyanov put two free throws in, Antonius Cleveland’s daring run to the succeeded, John Jenkins made a three-pointer with a lightning-fast release – that’s how the gap was reduced to 4 points. And with the buzzer, Tajhere McCall scored a difficult shot – 21:23.
Reynolds put the ball into the basket after his own miss in the first seconds of the 2nd quarter, but soon Andrey Martyuk responded from beyond the arc, and Yemchenko’s 2+1 put Loko ahead. The hosts defended swiftly and selflessly, so neither the Kazan’s best scorer Knight, nor the well-known DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell could make any shots in. And Taylor was unwell that the visiting coaches put him on the far end of the bench.
However, Bako, Reynolds and Louis Labeyrie scored points briskly (especially the latter one with his two 3-pointers in a row). Loko was kept within close reach by Martyuk’s shots, McCall’s acrobatics and a couple of 3-pointers in the 20th minute – one by Miller, then, at the buzzer, by Cleveland – 42:43!
After the side switch, Loko made an 8:0 run thanks to Yemchenko, Miller and Martyuk. In response, Akoon-Purcell and Knight finally managed to score their first points of the day, but Isaiah Whaley hot the hoop with a fine three-pointer, 58:49. Whaley also was good in the fight under the boards, and the Krasnodar team began to successfully suppress all UNICS’s attempts to recoup. Dmitry Uzinsky scored after a lob from Mikhail Vedishchev, Miller began to consistently score points in his signature runs to the basket – 71:61 by the last break.
Reynolds, Bako and Akoon-Purcell did not give up: the first of the above finished several UNICS attacks in a row at the start of the 4th quarter; the second gave his opponents block shot after block shot; the third began to score 3-pointers. In the 34th minute, Lokomotiv’s double-digit lead turned into 75:73. But Martyuk scored again from behind the arc, Reynolds violated the 3-second rule, Whaley added 2+1, Akoon-Purcell made a travelling, and Cleveland scored another 3 – 85:76.
Velimir Perasović takes a timeout, but it turns into a bad prepared shot by Lopatin and a dunk by Cleveland. Once again, UNICS manages to turn a double-digit deficit into a single-digit one – 89:80, but in the subsequent exchange of tactical fouls, the Krasnodar players throw flawlessly. The things are summed up by Whaley blocking Knight’s attempt and 2 points by McCall in a counterattack.
Lokomotiv-Kuban gets their 31st victory this season (there have never been so many before in the VTB United league; however, there have never been 44 regular season games either). Against teams that are higher than us in the standings, our win-loss record has been confirmed as positive – 7-5.
А мы благодарим каждого из 4410 зрителей, которые были на этом матче! Ваша поддержка стала одним из ключевых факторов, который позволил «Локо» переломить ход игры. Надеемся, вам понравилось.
В четверг, 10 апреля, нас ждёт домашний матч против МБА-МАИ, отчаянно борющихся за то, чтобы обыграть «Енисей» и получить над красноярцами преимущество в плей-ин. Ждём вас в «Баскет-Холле»!