Last time, Avtodor defeated Lokomotiv more than five years ago, in November 2020. That time, in Saratov, the home team got better after overtime, 89:85. Since then, we’ve won 13 times in a row, including both times this season. On October 29, the our team got a convincing 91:67 away victory. Anton Kviktovskikh (17 points) and Kirill Temirov (15) were our best scorers, while Igor Volkhin (16) was the opponent’s one.
Volkhin also had a solid game in Krasnodar on December 28 (88:65 in our favor), finishing second in Avtodor scoring (11 points). But the most impressive performance of the evening (beating even Jeremiah Martin‘s 25 points) came from Saratov center Alen Hadzibegovic, who had 26 points and 17 rebounds. It’s no coincidence that the Montenegrin is the only representative of Avtodor at the upcoming All-Star Game – he leads the league in rebounds (9.0), ranks third in blocks (1.1), and is fifth in scoring (17.4).
Since then, Avtodor have played five games: they suffered very low-scoring away losses to CSKA (49:94) and BETCITY PARMA (44:78), then played at home against Zenit and were also trailing badly, but suddenly woke up in the 4th quarter and turned 40:70 into 62:75. Pavel Zemsky, a forward on loan from St. Petersburg, performed brilliantly against his native team (17 points; he’s with the ball in the next photo), point guard Vitalijus Pranauskis added 9 assists to his 15 points, and Daniil Kasko, a forward on loan from Lokomotiv, grabbed 12 rebounds.
Avtodor ended their losing streak in great style in Nizhny Novgorod, crushing Pari NN 81:56. The Saratov team was particularly good in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, winning with a combined score of 39:14. Shooting guard Malik Newman returned to the lineup that day after a long absence, but the star of the game was Hadzibegovic, who notched another double-double (20+15). Kasko (15 points – a personal best in the VTB United League), Pranauskis (14+6 assists), and Zemsky (12) also had notable performances.
Newman really showed his skills in the next game – away against Zenit, where Avtodor didn’t let their opponents go far until the 4th quarter when the St.Peterburg team finally created a comfortable 105:79 lead. Malik scored 25 points, which allowed him to move into 3rd place in scoring in the league, averaging 17.9 points per game.
So now the most productive scoring duo in the VTB United League is no longer Samara’s Mikhailovsky/Cheburkin (20.1 + 14.3) or Kazan’s Bingham/Reynolds (17.6 + 17.3), but Saratov’s Newman/Hadzibegovic (17.9 + 17.4).
It’s also worth noting that another player from our opponent, point guard Grigory Motovilov, returned from injury that evening. He scored 13 points against Zenit.
The game will start on Sunday at 3:00 PM Moscow time. A win will keep us in 3rd place, and we believe that we will get it.
Go, Loko!