Our starting lineup for this game included Jeremiah Martin, Daniil Kasko, Kirill Yelatontsev, Anton Kvitkovskikh and Patrick Miller. The game was dedicated to the memory of İsmet Badem, a well-known basketball player and commentator in Türkiye who died in a motorcycle accident 7 years ago.


Just like 2 days ago, Loko started with great effort – all the points in the opening minutes were scored either after second-chance attempts or from the free-throw line, also, Kasko made an impressive block. Nevertheless, by the 6th minute, Trabzonspor was leading by 5 points. The situation was improved by the players who came off the bench: Makar Konovalov gave Vince Hunter a clever assist, then scored himself after Kosko did a great job in defense, and soon Hunter put Loko ahead with two accurate free throws, 14:13.
Then young Pavel Ryabkov appeared on the court – and his debut 2.5 minutes for the main team were okay: he took 1 rebound and committed 1 foul (in the 4th quarter, Pavel will come out again and score points). Meanwhile, Trabzonspor persistently attacked from a long distance, but to no avail. Only after Kassius Robertson scored the 3-pointer, our opponent managed to do the same. The quarter was summed up by Hunter’s put-back – 19:17.

At the start of the next period, Trabzonspor took the lead, but not for long – after long-range shots by Konovalov and Miller, it became 27:21 in favor of Lokomotiv. The ball movement by our players sometimes looked very nice, Hunter either forced opponents commit fouls, or made assists as a true point guard. Robertson showed himself well in defense, blocking an opponent’s shot in their last attack in the first half – the Krasnodar team went to the locker room leading 40:33.

When the game resumed, both sides struggled to score for about three minutes, but then Konovalov and Robertson made it from afar (Danil Sheyanov was also good in the latter episode, winning the rebound in the attack) – so Loko’s advantage was consolidated at the double-digit mark. Trabzonspor put themselves together and gradually turned “–12” into “–5”, but the end of the quarter still remained in our favor – thanks to free throws by Miller, Kirill Temirov and a buzzer by Hunter, 63:52.

The start of the 4th period, like the previous one, was not fruitful in points, but then Martin scored 5 points in a row in 10 seconds – first from the arc, then in a fast break – 70:56. The game immediately opened up, and this turned out to be in Lokomotiv’s favor: Kvitkovskikh and Martin scored easy balls in counterattacks – and soon there was no need to worry about the outcome of the game. The Krasnodar team played the final minutes with five young players, who confidently held on to the desired result, making a couple of good plays along the way.

Lokomotiv Kuban: Martin – 22 points, 2 assists; Hunter – 12 points, 7 rebounds; Miller – 11 points, 2 assists; Konovalov – 9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists; Robertson – 8 points, 5 rebounds, 1 block; Kvitkovskikh – 6 points, 2 assists; Temirov – 4 points; Yelatontsev – 3 points, 6 rebounds; Kasko – 3 points, 4 rebounds, 1 block; Sheyanov – 2 points, 3 rebounds; Ivan Samoylenko – 2 points, 3 assists; Ryabkov – 1 point, 2 rebounds.
Trabzonspor: Marqueese Reed – 20 points; Ty Gordon and Okben Ulubay – 12 points each; Karlis Slins – 11 points, 5 rebounds; Tres Tinkle – 11 points, 4 steals.
Lokomotiv Kuban will play their next game on September 10 at 2PM against Galatasaray.