MBA-MAI vs Loko: who will get their 2nd win of 2026?

On January 14 at 7:00 PM, the game between MBA-MAI and Lokomotiv Kuban will begin at the Moscow Basket Hall.

The teams are currently neighbors in the standings. Lokomotiv is in 5th place with a 13-8 win-loss record, while MBA-MAI is in 6th place with a 10-9 record.

Our opponent has lost 5 of their last 6 games (including the Russian Cup), with their only victory coming at the very beginning of the year, on January 4, at home against Uralmash (73:68). MBA-MAI’s top scorer that night was Vladislav Trushkin (16 rebounds, 7 rebounds), while Alexander Platunov added 7 assists to his 14 points.

Three days later, on January 7, Vasily Karasev‘s team lost to Khimki in the first game of the Russian Cup quarterfinals. They were leading 68:62 midway through the 4th quarter, but missed a powerful run, bringing the final score to 71:80. Vyacheslav Zaitsev scored the most points (21) for the Muscovites in this game; Maxim Lichutin and Andrei Zubkov added 15 points each.

On January 11, MBA-MAI lost 72:83 to BETCITY PARMA on their home court. The 2nd quarter, which the Perm team won 22:5, was decisive. The best statistics this time around were recorded for the Moscow team by Pavel Savkov (21+3 blocks) and Maxim Barashkov (13).

You probably noticed that in each of the three aforementioned games, MBA-MAI had different leaders. Indeed, their strength lies in the depth of their roster – it’s impossible to predict who will excel next. However, we’ll try to highlight a few players and bring more detail about them.

Power forward (and former captain of the two-time champion Lokomotiv youth team) Andrei Zubkov leads MBA-MAI in scoring (14.5 points), rebounds (6.3), playing time (29 minutes), and opponent’s fouls per game (6.2). In plus-minus (+1.7), he’s second only to young Matvey Padius (+3.4), who has only played a total of half an hour in the VTB United League so far. In blocks (0.6), Zubkov is tied for 1st-3rd on the team with two other players; his 2.4 assists and 1.0 steals per game are also impressive.

One of the players with whom Zubkov shares the lead in blocks is point guard Vyacheslav Zaytsev. Zaytsev also shares the team lead in assists (4.3), ranks second in points (9.8), and grabs a respectable 3.3 rebounds.

Point guard Alexander Platunov also makes 4.3 assists per game for MBA-MAI, which are supplemented by 7.4 points, 1.5 rebounds, 0.9 steals, and 0.3 blocks (by the way, our opponent is the most blocking team in the league, doing this in total 3.9 times per game).

Power forward Vladislav Trushkin is shooting 39.6% from 3-point range (1.9 of 4.8 attempts per game). He’s second only to Padius on the team in this regard, but Padius has a small sample size—2 of 3 shots made in the entire championship. Trushkin leads his team in steals (1.1), and is third in points (9.4) and rebounds (4.3).

Power forward Danil Pevnev is one of three MBA-MAI leaders in blocks (0.6), yet he plays less than Zubkov and Zaitsev, so in terms of pure time on the court, he could be considered the Red-Whites’ best blocker. Pevnev‘s 3-point percentage is also noteworthy, reaching 35.3% (0.7 of 1.9 attempts), which helps him post averages of 6.5 points and 3.8 rebounds.

In the previous match against Lokomotiv (November 15, 93:79 in our favor), point guard Maxim Lichutin scored 19 points for the capital team. His season averages are 7.2 points, 1.5 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.2 blocks (aye, blocks for point guard, again).

In the upcoming game, we may expect a strong performance from another of our graduates, center Sergei Balashov. He doesn’t score many points (4.3), but he grabs more offensive rebounds (1.8) than defensive ones (1.4).

And, of course, we must note the return of Alexander Gudumak, who spent six months with Lokomotiv last season. This power forward has played 3 games for MBA-MAI so far, including the Cup, and in two VTB United League games, he’s currently averaging 5 points, 1 win, 1 assist, and 1 steal, though he also has the team’s worst plus/minus (-5.5).

I like the way MBA-MAI plays, they are aggressive, they are trying to run, trying to be active all the time. They are first in the league in offensive rebounds, so first of all we must stop them taking the rebounds under our basket. And the second thing which I think is even more important besides rebounding is to respond to their aggressiveness. I really believe we will be ready to make a good reaction tomorrow. It's still like an adjustment period for all of us. We are trying to meet each other. I'm trying to see which roles they fit in. I found that they have so many qualities. I really believe in them and we just have to put them to the right purpose. Obviously, we're missing rebounds. We have to be involved in rebounding. This is one of the major things which we have to fix at the moment and with this one we're gonna open up some other things like running, the early offence. And what is more important, rebounds will give us confidence. Right now, even after some great defenses, we allow opponents to take second chance points and this is really painful every time and our confidence goes down.

Tomislav Tomović. the head coach at Lokomotiv Kuban PBC

The upcoming game will be the 13th in the history of this rivalry. MBA-MAI (then as MBA) won the first two, but since 2022, only Lokomotiv has got victories. We believe the Krasnodar team can extend this streak today!