The Volga club floats at the bottom of the standings, with just one win in 22 games. The upcoming encounter will be the opponents’ 3rd of the season. In October, Loko won 101:82 in Krasnodar, with Anton Kvitkovskikh scoring 17 points, Vince Hunter 16, and Ilya Popov 15. In Samara on November 22, our team again surpassed the 100-point mark, winning 102:74. This time, Makar Konovalov led our team with 18 points, Popov also was good (17).
Samara has been struggling with injuries throughout the season. It’s unlikely we’ll see Dmitry Cheburkin, Artyom Chevarenkov, Mikhail Kulagin, and Valery Kalinov on the court on Sunday. However, that the Volga team’s only victory (79:71 in Nizhny Novgorod) came when both of their top scorers, Cheburkin and Nikita Mikhailovsky, were absent.
Mikhailovsky (20.1 points) leads not only Samara in scoring but also the entire league. His statistics speak volumes about how much our opponents’ game hinges on this shooting guard: 6.6 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 0.6 steals, 0.4 blocks, and he’s fouled 6.7 times per game. In the fall games against Lokomotiv, Nikita scored 22 and 19 points.
Samara captain Yevgeny Minchenko is averaging 8.5 points and is the team’s most accurate 3-point shooter, making 39.4% (0.6 of 1.5 attempts per game) – pretty good for a center! He’s also okay in terms of rebounds (5.1) and blocks (0.8). Minchenko‘s box plus/minus (-9.3) is the best among those who play more than 15 minutes per game.
Power forward Danila Pokhodyaev missed the start of the season due to injury, and in the 12 games he did play, his stats are 7.0 points, 3.8 rebounds, 0.5 assists, and 0.5 steals. In the win over Pari NN, Pokhodyaev recorded a double-double (20+11).
Small forward Gleb Sheiko has made significant progress throughout the season. His averages of 7.1 points, 2.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 0.8 steals don’t fully reflect his contribution to the team.
In Chevarenkov‘s absence, Alexander Kuznetsov has become Samara’s main point guard – in addition to 2.3 assists, he brings the team 3.9 points and 1.7 rebounds.
Power forward Andrei Savrasov usually comes off the bench. And he does so with good grit: 8.2 points, 3.0 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 0.6 steals, and 0.4 blocks.
We’ll probably see a recently loaned Lokomotiv player in Samara’s colors on Sunday. We’re talking about power forward Alexander Letino, whom we signed in the summer and initially loaned to Rostov-on-Don. But BARS withdrew from the Superliga, urging our sports department to find a new club for the Swedish prospect. Letino has only played 9 minutes for Samara so far against Uralmash, grabbing 3 rebounds and appearing in 1e photo (he’s on the left).
The game starts at 3:30 PM, and the Basket Hall opens to spectators at 2:00 PM. Due to traffic conditions, we recommend arriving early. See you at the stands!
Go, Loko!