The opponent, wearing a cheerful red-and-green striped uniform, won the opening jump-ball but couldn’t convert their first attack into points. Lokomotiv, however, did it: Jeremiah Martin was fouled on a 3-point attempt and made 2 of 3 free throws. Soon after, Kirill Yelatontsev scored beautifully on a pass from Makar Konovalov. But Martin remained the star of the opening period: his mid-range shot made it 9:0, and the Karşıyaka coaches called a timeout. After the break, the Turks finally scored their first points, with Michael Moore’s layup. But by the end of the first six minutes, the score was 13-2, with Martin also making a highlight, blocking a shot.
Royce Hamm came on as a substitute and immediately dunked. Justin Alston scored from long range, but Kassius Robertson immediately responded with a 3-pointer. The final minutes of the first quarter were Alston’s time, who brought his team 7 points in a row. Nevertheless, by the end of the quarter, the score was depressing for Karşıyaka – 26:11 in our favor.
The second quarter began with a miss by Hamm, but Ilya Popov made a rebound and the ball went in. The following minutes were good for the opponent, who went on a 13-point run and closed within striking distance, 30:23. But Lokomotiv woke up in time: Martin scored once again, Konovalov added 2+1, and, most importantly, the defense improved greatly, forcing the Karşıyaka coach to call another timeout, 38:27. And just before the buzzer, Kash hit a 3-pointer, making it 44:27, a good advantage.
After the game resumed, Karşıyaka made one more attempt to get back into the game. A tough fight with almost zero scoring started: in 5 minutes, the teams combined for just 8 points, 6 of which came from the Krasnodar team players.
After Anton Kvitkovskikh scored 2 free throws, things paced up. The teams eschanged several successful attacks, then the Turks began to foul frequently: an unsportsmanlike foul on Robertson, a regular foul on Miller… Towards the end of the period, these two also scored once from beyond the arc, which allowed Loko to further increase the lead before the final quarter – 62:39.
At the start of the 4th quarter, our young prospect Pavel Ryabkov entered the game. Miller made a smart steal and scored with a layup. Moore responded, but Miller scored from afar, and then assisted to Robertson who added 3 more points.
With the score 70:50, frequent fouls began again on both sides. Ivan Samoylenko and Danil Sheyanov made their debuts in the game (the latter soon dunked on a fast transition). The game looked completely decided when Popov scored several points in a row. Before the siren, Ryabkov also had a nice moment with a block.
Our team will now play Türk Telekom in the Ankara Yalçın Efe tournament final on September 20th at 6:15 PM. You can follow the game live on our social media.