Tomislav Tomović, who arrived in Krasnodar yesterday and is currently in the process of taking over as Lokomotiv’s head coach, watched the game from the front row of the Basket Hall, along with members of the coaching staff.
Just 10 seconds into the game, Patrick Miller scored 2+1, to which Timofey Gerasimov quickly responded with a 3-pointer. Then Jeremiah Martin scored 6 straight points for Lokomotiv, while the game was generally fast-paced, with no pauses. However, neither team scored good, and with 11:11 on the scoreboard, from the 5th to the 8th minute, no one could score except Octavius Ellis (once). Then Ilya Popov made 2+1, Kirill Temirov scored 4 straight points, but the quarter ended tied – Isaiah Reese beat the buzzer from the perimeter, 20:20.
At the start of the 2nd quarter, Uralmash quickly scored 5 points in a row. Lokomotiv, on the other hand, struggled to get their baskets until Vsevolod Ishchenko made a great footwork in the paint. Martin scored 2 more points, and then some crazy game unfolded, culminating in this missed opportunity for 3 Krasnodar players to attack a single guard.
This allowed the visitors to maintain a 3-5-point lead for a while, but by the end of the quarter, B.J. Johnson from beyond the arc, and Martin and Johnson again (both from close range) tied the game at 39:39.
After the switch, the hosts re-energized their defense: Johnson blocked Gerasimov‘s 3-pointer, Anton Kvitkovskikh and Temirov each made a steal. But Lokomotiv couldn’t score until the end of the 22nd minute, when Temirov made 2 free throws. Since then things picked up on offense fast: Kvitkovskikh made 2 free throws, Miller made a steal and sent Uralmash to a timeout, 45:39.
The pause didn’t help the visitors: Vince Hunter intercepted, Johnson grabbed an offensive rebound, and Kvitkovskikh scored 2 more points. Under pressure from Lokomotiv, Uralmash sometimes couldn’t even get the ball out of the line, and only at the end of the 26th minute Reese scored his team’s first points of the 2nd half from the perimeter, halting Loko’ spurt at 14:0. However, “halting” is the wrong word, since Mike Moore immediately scored a 3-pointer, added 2 more points a minute later, Hunter and Miller scored a little later, and Lokomotiv ended up winning the 3rd quarter with an impressive score of 23:5.
Early in the final period, the Krasnodar team’s lead grew to 20 points after an alley-oop played by Miller and Hunter. However, Uralmash clawed back a 5-point lead in just 2 possessions. Ishchenko hit a long shot, Martin made 2 free throws a little later, but even with the score of 69:50 with 6 1/2 minutes remaining, the visitors didn’t give up: Reese scored from about a meter short of the 3-point line, Octavius Ellis added 2+1, Garrett Nevels and Javonte Douglas made 4 more points, so with 2 minutes remaining, another Reese long-range shot narrowed the gap to 6 points, 70:64.
As if that weren’t enough, Hunter was called for an offensive foul on the next play. But Hunter immediately redeemed, stealing the ball from Nelson, and on the counterattack, Miller rebounded the ball after his own miss and scored all 3 free throws (the 3rd was given for a technical foul by the opposing coach). Uralmash tried to come back again, but Lokomotiv had no intention of irritating themselves or their joyous fans any further that evening.
The Krasnodar team now has two away games to play: against Yenisei on January 11th and against MBA-MAI on January 14th. Our next home game is on the 18th, against Zenit. Tomović will be coaching the team for these games.