Patrick Miller was given a day off by the coaching staff. Right before the game, Jeremiah Martin received the Melbet Award for the team’s best player in February. Congrats, it’s well-deserved!
The game started off rather slowly: the scoring wasn’t opened until the end of the 2nd minute, thanks to Vsevolod Ishchenko. But after the score of 5:5, things picked up fast. Daniil Kasko‘s reverse layup was answered with a dunk from Anton Kvitkovskikh, Igor Volkhin scored 2 points, and Ishchenko – 3, all within a minute of net time. With two consecutive 3-pointers, Avtodor built a slight lead, allowing the visitors to win the first quarter 23:17.
The beginning of the 2nd period was also short on goals, especially for Loko – by the 13th minute, the opponent was already leading by double digits, 27:17. Once again, Ishchenko broke the red-green drought, this time from the free throw line. Malik Newman continued to repeat the 1st-quarter pattern with his 3-pointers, increasing Avtodor’s lead to 11 points. But then, Alen Hadzibegovic scored, did it again, and Kvitkovskikh made a steal and a dunk. Seconds later, Artyom Klimenko allowed a turnover, and Martin set up Hadzibegovic for another dunk – making it 32:37. Even despite another long-range shot from Volkhin, Lokomotiv pulled back a bit more by the break – 36:40.
The 3rd quarter was initially no different from the previous two: once again, the opponents hardly scraped together 5 points in the first 2 minutes – Martin‘s mid-range shot was answered with a long-range one by Volkhin. Then Lokomotiv began to catch up, slowly at first, then in one burst: Ishchenko scored on a breakaway, immediately made a steal, a counterattack resulted in Mike Moore‘s free throws, which tied the game at 43:43. Another successful defense, and Martin gave our team the lead.
Temperatures flared: in less than a minute, Tomislav Tomović and Vince Hunter were both called for technical fouls, allowing Avtodor to take the lead again, but only briefly – Hunter scored, made a steal, and Kvitkovskikh made it 55-52. Newman hit a 3-pointer, and Temirov, in a counterattack, initially missed two free throws, but then hit a long-range shot after our rebound. After Newman‘s miss, Temirov summed up the 3rd quarter – 60:55.
The final 10 minutes began without a hitch: Ishchenko hit a 3-pointer, Hunter stole the ball from Grigory Motovilov, dunked spectacularly—and then left the game, having received his 5th personal foul after a clash with Motovilov. Under intense pressure from our players, Avtodor couldn’t get the ball back into play within 5 seconds, and Kvitkovskikh made the score 67:55. After Hadzibegovic‘s put-back and Temirov‘s long-range shot, Lokomotiv’s lead reached 15 points, but the visitors didn’t give up, coming back 6 points within a minute, 72:63. Tomović‘s timeout brought the red-greens back to their senses, and a dunkfest began: first Ishchenko dunked, then Hadzibegovic, and finally Temirov—”+17″ with 2 minutes left! In the remaining time, Danil Sheyanov and Zakhar Vedishchev managed to open their personal scoring lists–well done, Loko!
The 18-point margin may be misleading – Lokomotiv’s victory wasn’t easy. It’s worth noting, however, that in each quarter, our team scored more and allowed fewer goals than in the previous one – 17:23, 19:17, 24:15, 27:14. It’s also worth noting that this is our second 87:69 victory of the season – the same score recorded on November 18 in Yekaterinburg.
On Wednesday, Lokomotiv will have another home match against 2025/26 Russian Cup finalist Pari NN. We look forward to seeing you at Basket Hall!