Lev Svinin‘s 3-pointer was quickly answered by Ilya Popov, who beat his opponent in the paint. And on the very next attack, Lokomotiv took the lead after Anton Kvitkovskikh‘s mid-range shot. Frequent lead changes began. Thanks to a 2+1 by Terrell Carter, BETCITY PARMA took a two-point lead, but Vsevolod Ishchenko immediately tied it at 12:12. Soon, the hosts were ahead by two possessions – after a quick counterattack by Ishchenko. Brendan Adams scored 3 points, but then Lokomotiv was good in defence twice, and Ivan Samoylenko‘s long-range shot in the 9th minute forced a timeout for Perm, 20:15. At exactly the same margin did the teams finish the 1st quarter – 24:19.
Brendan Adams ran on a counterattack at the start of the second period, but his shot was blocked by Ishchenko, who then assisted Kassius Robertson on a 3-pointer. On the next play, Robertson executed a brilliant isolation play, and a few seconds later, he made a steal, setting up Vince Hunter for an All-Star Game dunk, 34:23!
After a BETCITY PARMA timeout, the showpiece continued: this time, Miller stole the ball and dunked by himself. Lokomotiv showed no signs of slowing down: Kvitkovskikh hit a shot from beyond the arc, Ishchenko elegantly added the ball to the basket, Popov missed from about four meters, but immediately avenged for it by blocking Alexander Zakharov‘s shot, and Ishchenko soon brought the crowd to their feet again with a steal and a dunk, 45:29. This was a very exciting stretch for Lokomotiv: even if things didn’t work out, the home team quickly regained possession, and next time things did work out. 52:33 at halftime – fans of the Krasnodar team could be pleased with both the attack and defense of their favorites.
After the game resumed, Popov increased Lokomotiv’s lead to 22 with two attacks, and soon Kvitkovskikh‘s 3-pointer brought it to 23. Meanwhile, Popov was unstoppable – he made two more shots to set the score to 62:36. Then, BETCITY PARMA managed to rally a bit and – despite more great shots from Ishchenko – narrowed the gap to 66:45. A little later, Zakharov answered Daniil Kasko‘s floater with a 3-pointer. However, Popov‘s 2 more points, a steal from Samoylenko, and a midrange shot from Robertson sent the visitors to a timeout at 72:48. The scoring rate for both sides slowed slightly, and Temirov‘s fastbreak dunk capped the quarter, making it 74:51.
For a while in the 4th quarter, it seemed like the Loko-carnival was still going strong: Temirov and Kvitkovskikh, with Hunter directly involved, increased the lead to 27 points. But BETCITY PARMA pressed the chase, with Mikael Hopkins scoring 5 points in half a minute, young Svinin and Gleb Firsov scoring on a after another, and Brendan Adams hitting a 3-pointer—and with 2 1/2 minutes left, the deficit had been reduced to a dangerous 9 points. Just in time came Temirov‘s long-range shot and a block by Hunter, followed by 2+1 from Robertson. It was 88:73, and after misses by Brendan Adams and Firsov, the game was done.
90:77 – Lokomotiv Kuban goes to clear 3rd place in the standings. Their next game is on Saturday – MBA-MAI, a team in 4th-5th place, is visiting us. See you at Basket Hall! Please note: the game starts at a rather unusual time – 4:30 PM.