Especially for the playoffs, Lokomotiv Kuban developed a new corporate style, the black and fiery colors of which symbolize the power of a steam locomotive rushing at full speed to its goal.
The welcoming dance of our cheerleaders was also new – and so was the playing kits! When Loko ran out to warm up, a mass exclamation of surprise clearly rolled through the stands.
But from the first minutes, it seemed that if anyone was on fire, it was Uralmash: the visitors played flawlessly in defense; Jeremiah Martin, Vladimir Ivlev and Hayden Dalton regularly found ways to score points. Only after several substitutions, when the score was 0:8, Loko made their first ball in – Isaiah Whaley did not hesitate to make a long shot. Antonius Cleveland soon added 2+1 – and this slightly got the home team going, at least in defense. The red-greens (or rather, black-fiery that evening) still had hard times scoring, but they stopped Uralmash.
Kirill Yelatontsev entered the game with good energy, Vladislav Yemchenko successfully used his chance to score, Patrick Miller snatched the ball from his opponent and dunked on the breakaway – and now it was 14:16. And at the end of the quarter, Lokomotiv took the lead – the same Miller calmly put on target the shot from the perimeter – 17:16!
At the beginning of the 2nd quarter, Miller increased the hosts’ lead by another 4 points. However, then a good period began for Uralmash: Javonte Douglas entered the game eagerly, Dalton and Yauheni Beliankou scored three points each, Octavius Ellis finished an alley-oop from Martin, and Martin himself scored several balls that could have demoralized a weaker opponent.
But this was not the case with Loko. Long shots by Andrei Martyuk and Tahjere McCall stopped the opponent’s attempts to break away, making the Basket Hall fan sector roar time after time. Yet, Dalton’s difficult 3-point shot allowed Uralmash to make it 33:37 by the big break.
After the change of sides, Beliankou scored from the perimeter again – “–7” for Loko! In response, our team launched such a desperate attack that Ivlev picked up two fouls during it, and Martin – one more, which resulted in Martyuk’s hook shot. Anton Kardanakhishvili immediately put a 3-pointer in – 35:43; but Miller also scored, from above once again! Dalton performed another hard shot, this time from the mid-range – and here was Cleveland, who did it from beyond the arc, 41:45!
Gradually, Loko began to get better at defense, and the opponent had already excessed their foul limit. For some time, the score kept being equal – mainly due to the high accuracy of visitors’ 3-pointers (by the last break, they had 62%, 10 out of 16), but the hosts attacked more consistently and diversely: Cleveland did not let a miss from any distance; Miller scored from afar; Yemchenko put the ball from above on a fast break; McCall showed that one must not leave him unguarded on the arc; Yelatontsev bravely collected fouls and scored free throws with 100% accuracy.
The quarter were summed up by a buzzer dunk by Yelatontsev – thus the margin became double-digit for the first time, 68:58!
Shortly into the 4th quarter, the lead came to “+20”: Yemchenko, McCall, Kirill Temirov, Whaley and Yelatontsev swirled the opponent in a hurricane, not allowing them to score anything and mercilessly striking back. Uralmash tried to respond with toughness, Martin and Temirov at some point received mutual unsportsmanlike fouls, and both teams exhausted their foul limit for the quarter before the end of the 33rd minute.
At the same time, the visitors could only score from the free throw line, and at some point Lokomotiv was really on fire: Cleveland turned Temirov’s lob pass into an assist; Martyuk ran away from the defense and gently put the ball into the basket from above; Miller, having received the same opportunity, decided not to be gentle – he hammered dunk with great passion; Ilya Popov seemed to have run away, but Temirov reached him, knocked the ball away and eventually scored himself. The icing on the cake was a Cleveland poster dunk.
Lokomotiv Kuban wins by 32 points and leaves the opponent in a bad mood.
We are waiting for everyone on April 24. Don’t miss the opportunity to see the confrontation between Lokomotiv and Uralmash – it really can give you exciting moments!