Thanks to Vince Hunter, Lokomotiv quickly took a 4:0 lead. But Igor Volkhin scored from beyond the arc, Daniil Kasko burst under the basket, a bit later Volkhin performed something similar – and Avtodor got ahead, 7:6. The hosts became harder on defense, and after a dunk from Vsevolod Ishchenko on a fast break, the Saratov team called a timeout with our 11:7 lead. The pause significantly helped the visitors: Alen Hadzibegovic scored 6 points in a row, but then it was time for Lokomotiv to arrange another mini-spurt: Jeremiah Martin and Mike Moore brought the lead back to the Krasnodar team, which remained until the end of the quarter, 19:17.
Despite a long shot by Kassius Robertson and a dunk by Moore, Lokomotiv struggled to score much for a while. Meanwhile Hadzibegovic, with 2 personal fouls, became cautious on defense. Gradually, the home team began to run away: Martin scored 2+1, Robertson made a steal, and converted it to 2 points. Martin hit 3-pointers on 2 consecutive attacks and added 2 more points on a fast break – 41:24 by the 17th minute. Volkhin and Hadzibegovic got 5 points back, but Avtodor’s coach was forced to substitute Vitaliyus Pranauskis and Kasko, who had each picked up 4 fouls. By the big break, Ishchenko, Ilya Popov, and Patrick Miller had restored the lead to 15 points, 48:33.
The start of the 3rd quarter was a little chaotic, with a fair number of turnovers and missed shots (even on dunks). Avtodor had exhausted their foul limit within 2 minutes. BJ Johnson had a good stretch: he scored 4 points in a row and forced Pranauskis make his 5th foul and leave the game. In the 25th minute, Martin scored his 20th point this evening, making the score 61:41. Hadzibegovic took charge of Saratov’s attacks, and by the end of the 3rd quarter, he scored 26 of the team’s 53 points. Lokomotiv maintained a comfortable lead thanks to Robertson‘s performance (5 points in a row). By the final intermission, the score was 70:53 in favor of Loko.
Avtodor tried to arrange a chase, but Martin, being on fire, squashed every attempt—sometimes from beyond the arc, sometimes in the drive. After Miller‘s signature 5-meter shot in the 35th minute, the outcome was clearly settled—82:63. Kasko scored from under the basket, but Ishchenko immediately responded with a layup. In the remaining minutes, the Saratov coaching staff let the back of the bench play. Pavel Ryabkov and Makar Konovalov got their points, thus making each of the 11 Lokomotiv players who took the court scored. There was New Year dancing in the stands. It’s safe to say that the game on holiday became a success for the Krasnodar team.
Lokomotiv Kuban will play their next game at home again on January 4th. The opponent is UNICS. The start is at 4:30 PM. See you at the Basket Hall!