At the very start, Vince Hunter made a steal and passed the ball to Patrick Miller for 2 points. On our next attack, BJ Johnson hit both free throws, but Lokomotiv’s attack stalled there, while Uralmash began to dominate our post and scored 5 second-chance points to make it 4:9. Kirill Temirov scored a 3-pointer, Octavius Ellis responded with 2+1, but Hunter did the same, 10:14. Hunter was pretty good in this stretch, tying the league record for steals in a quarter (5). However, those steals didn’t always convert into points – Lokomotiv made only 4 of their 14 field goal attempts in the first 10 minutes. The opponent, however, also missed a lot, so after Jeremiah Martin’s basket, the result of the first 10 minutes looked tolerable – 15:21.
In the first episode of the 2nd quarter, Mike Moore fouled Hayden Dalton on a long-range shot. Dalton made only one free throw, and Moore immediately scored a 3-pointer. Ilya Popov pushed Tyrell Nelson away from the paint to score, and Martin added another point, hitting a free throw awarded for the Uralmash coaches’ loud dissatisfaction with referees – 21:22.
Then another struggle for Lokomotiv began: the ball wouldn’t go into the hoop even in sure-fire situations, and the defense couldn’t stop Ellis. Popov picked up 3 fouls in short time, forcing the coach to send barely rested Hunter back in. It wasn’t until 22:32 that Moore finally scored (from afar). Miller added 2 more points, then made a steal and passed to Zakhar Vedischev, who scored from the corner, making it 30:34. Johnson soon cut the gap to one possession, but Uralmash mounted another run, 0:6. Johnson ended the opponent’s streak with a long-range shot, Miller and Martin scored again, and the teams went to the locker rooms with 39:42 in favor of the home team.
For about a minute and a half after the game resumed, both teams failed to score until Vsevolod Ishchenko threw a quality alley-oop to Johnson. Hunter forced Nelson to make an offensive foul and gave Loko a 43:42 lead seconds later. Anton Kvitkovskikh delivered a spectacular dunk, and for a while, the lead changed hands on every attack. Uralmash managed to take a 3-point margin at one point, but Martin beautifully trimmed it back to a minimum. Then it was Temirov‘s time: he forced Kirill Pisklov to foul in attack, and Javonte Douglas to foul in defense while our player was shooting from afar. After converting 2 free throws, Temirov put Loko ahead, 52:51. But two unnecessary turnovers followed, and the opponent scored 5 points in a row. With a difficult layup, Temirov brought the game back to one possession, but Yauheni Beliankou made a 3-pointer, and Uralmash went into the final break leading 59:54.
At the start of the 4th quarter, Temirov‘s shot was blocked by Ellis, but our forward performed a put-back. The next two Loko’ attacks were scoreless, and Uralmash pulled away by 5 points. Novikov‘s long-range shot over Moore at the 24 seconds buzzer was especially disappointing. Hunter scored from mid-range, executed his 7th steal of the game, and Johnson made it 59:64 from the free throw line. Miller scored, but in general Lokomotiv struggled for every basket, especially in contrast to how seemingly easily Garrett Nevels got points. Our rebounding seemed much better than in any of our recent games (we finished almost tied with Uralmash in that metrics, 37-39), but our field goal percentage was dismal, 22 of 67 (32.8%).
So the gap began to grow steadily, at one point reaching “–17”. None of our players could make a decent shot even from under the basket, Ishchenko got a technical foul, Johnson got fired up, and had a quarrel with several opposing players, but it didn’t turn the game around—alas, a defeat.
Let us conclude this report with words of respect to our fans who cheered the team in the stands of the Yekaterinburg arena. We believe you’ll definitely have a lot of reasons to celebrate soon!
Lokomotiv now goes to Saratov, where they will play Avtodor on Sunday. The game starts off at 3:00 PM Moscow time.
We believe in the team!