The opening of the game didn’t promise a high level of scoring – when Maxim Barashkov opened the scoring from afar, the timer had already ticked down to 1.37. But things escalated quickly: the next minute and a half featured 2 free throws by Vince Hunter, a Barashkov mid-range basket, a Mike Moore 3-pointer, a steal and a dunk by Patrick Miller – 7:5 in Loko’s favor!
Barashkov continued to fire accurately from the perimeter, supported by Alexander Platunov‘s drives. These minutes, Loko scored due to the efforts of B.J. Johnson and Miller. There were also some signs of luck on Loko’s side: Vyacheslav Zaitsev‘s 3-pointer was disallowed because the time limit expired a moment earlier, then Ilya Popov found a spot on the arc and scored. Two slaloms by Jeremiah Martin and a long-range shot by Makar Konovalov created a two-possession lead by the 10th minute, but Danil Pevnev scored 2+1, and the teams went into the break with 27:24 in Krasnodar’s favor.
Loko started the 2nd quarter strongly: Hunter handed the ball into the basket, Johnson grabbed a rebound after his own long-range miss and succeeded in a close-range shot, Konovalov scored from beyond the arc, Martin added another 3 to make it 38:24, forcing Vasily Karasev to call an emergency timeout. After that, MBA-MAI also started making 3-pointers, but Hunter kept them on the distance, scoring either under the basket, or 2+1 ones.
Despite their impressive field goal percentage (65% were sustained until the final buzzer), Loko had obvious problems with rebounding in the 1st half – our team had more assists than rebounds for a long time, and at one point MBA-MAI was 3 times ahead of us in this parameter! Also, Alexander Gudumak made a powerful game entrance for the Muscovites – he shot flawlessly, made steals, and, as you might expect, grabbed rebounds. By the end of the 2nd quarter, the opponent had cut the gap to 5 points. But Miller managed to score, and in the final episode of the 1st half, Zaitsev missed both free throws for an unsportsmanlike foul, and then Pasha Ismailov missed an opportunity to hit an open buzzer-beater from the corner of the court – 53:46 in Loko’s favor.
The 3rd quarter began, and déjà vu set in: just like the 2nd quarter, Lokomotiv burst into action. Miller scored on a drive, Johnson – from afar, Hunter dunked, then Miller got 2 more points. A 9:0 run, and once again the MBA-MAI coach was forced to call a timeout just 3 minutes into the period. Again, Gudumak led the pursuit: a 3-pointer, a block, 2 points on the break, and the score was no longer double-digit, 66:57.
But our team became much better on the rebounds. So, while Barashkov and Zaitsev kept scoring, their baskets became less frequent, while Martin, Popov, and Johnson continued to maintain a 65% from the field. When Hunter scored 2+1 for the 4th time this evening at the end of the quarter, the margin reached “+18”, 80:62.
Pevnev managed to play 1 point back before the 3rd break, but this only spurred Lokomotiv on to make another run. Our team scored 11 points at the start of the 4th quarter, keeping their opponent scoreless for 4 minutes! Miller and Hunter both surpassed the 20-point mark, and Popov repeatedly reminded us why he was so beloved at the start of the season.
At one point, the margin reached 32 points. MBA-MAI rushed to save some face and cut it to “–23” within a couple of minutes, but Tomislav Tomović‘s well-timed timeout brought Loko back to their senses, and soon, Danil Sheyanov, appearing on the court for the first time in a while, first scored his 100th point for Krasnodar, and then sealed the victory with a 3-pointer.
Lokomotiv Kuban will play their next 3 games at home. Zenit will visit us on January 18th, PARMA will visit us on the 22nd (this will be a Winline Cup game, therefore the Perm team will play without “BETCITY” in their name), and Samara will visit us on the 25th. Come to Basket Hall to see Tomović‘s debut in front of the home fans!