The Winline Basket Cup organizers deserve words of respect: they transformed the Basket Hall arena beyond recognition. Before the game, the brass orchestra performed our retro-anthem “When Lokomotiv Gets Full Throttle” followed by a spectacular fire show!
The game began at a slow pace. Loko responded to CSKA’s 2-pointers with several 2+1, first from Vsevolod Ishchenko, then Ilya Popov, and a little later from Anton Kvitkovskikh, who made it 11:11 in the 7th minute. Defense clearly dominated offense during this stretch; for a while, the teams only scored points from the free throw line, but then Vince Hunter finished 3 consecutive baskets from under the hoop, and Kvitkovskikh‘s buzzer-beater from the backboard capped the opening quarter, making it 19:13.
Kassius Robertson got a fine run early in the 2nd period: he scored from mid-range despite the contact from Anton Astapkovich, then hit a 3-pointer, and twice made sweet passes to Hunter. Add to that a long-range shot from Jeremiah Martin, and the score became 31:19 by the 15-minute mark.
Melo Trimble refused to accept the situation: he scored a layup, fed Livio Jean-Charles an alley-oop, then hit a perimeter shot—and Lokomotiv’s lead was reduced to just four points, 33:29. CSKA was clearly in high gear: Samson Ruzhentsev scored five points in a row, Alexander Chadov hit a 3-pointer, and when Hunter finally broke our team’s scoring drought, the guests were already ahead, 35:37. Moreover, before the end of the quarter, Trimble managed to score first 3, then 3+1 – 35:43.
On the first possession of the 3rd quarter, Ishchenko blocked a Casper Ware shot, but CSKA still scored 5 points in a row. Mike Moore and Robertson‘s baskets spurred Lokomotiv’s attack a bit, but the Muscovites kept scoring, making it 46:60 by the 24th minute.
Ishchenko took charge: 3 points, a rebound, 2 more points. After B.J. Johnson scored an acrobatic layup, Loko began to find their groove on defense, and soon Ishchenko dunked to make the gap one-digit, 58:66. Hunter added 2+1, and that allowed us to crawl a bit closer, 63:68 at the end of the period.
Loko picked up 3fouls in the 4th quarter very quickly–less than 60 seconds had passed. However, the margin stayed at “–5”, thanks to Kvitkovskikh‘s layup on the counterattack. The score remained at 65:70 for the next 2 minutes, until Jean-Charles scored a free throw and Astapkovich added 3 points after a rebound. Moore finally broke Krasnodar’s streak of misses, but then defense started to dominate offence once again–Moore‘s block on Ware was a good example. So, when Johnson‘s 2+1 made it 74:78, there were just over 2 minutes left to play. Trimble made 2 free throws, but Patrick Miller‘s iso and Ishchenko‘s dunk brought most of the 4,750 spectators to their feet – 78:80!
On the next possession, Ware hit a 3-pointer. Lokomotiv launched an attack in which there were 4 attempts to score, but, unfortunately, none of them found the net. Jean-Charles‘ free throw increased the Moscow team’s lead to “+7”. Moore‘s 3-pointer in the remaining time couldn’t change the outcome.
Despite their third defeat in 3 Winline Basket Cup games, Lokomotiv still has a chance to reach the semifinals – they just need to win their 3 remaining games. And they hope to beat each opponent by a greater margin than they lost to, which isn’t far-fetched: they need to overcome a 7-point deficit against PARMA, a 3-point deficit against Mega, and an 8-point deficit against CSKA. We believe in the team!
Our next home game is coming up soon – December 28 at 4:00 PM against Avtodor. See you at Basket Hall! Go, Loko!