Several Lokomotiv fans came to Samara and enjoyed some industry-related leisure time before the game, visiting the Volga Region Museum of Kuibyshev Railway Equipment. And during the game, there were about 10 people in the stands of the city’s Sports Palace with red and green flags. Our respect and gratitude to them!
On the day of the game, it was announced that the club’s medical staff recommended leaving Alen Hadzibegovic on the bench. On the other side, Samara’s center, Dmitry Khaldeev, had suffered an injury shortly before the game, and Nikita Mikhailovsky, the Volga team’s leading player by almost every measure, was ruled out for the rest of the season.
So, 21-year-old Nikita Kosyakov was the home team’s starting center, and on the first possession, Vince Hunter showed the youngster how experienced centers attack. Patrick Miller immediately scored after a steal by Hunter, Vsevolod Ishchenko added 2+1, Mike Moore hit free throws, and it wasn’t until the score was 9:2 that Lokomotiv missed their first shot of the game. In response, Mikhail Kulagin hit three-pointers on two consecutive plays, but Ishchenko also hit a long-range shot – 16:8, and Samara called a timeout.
The first substitutions began. Ivan Samoylenko and Makar Konovalov each hit three-pointers, Hunter blocked Dmitry Cheburkin‘s shot, Danil Sheyanov dunked. Cheburkin‘s long-range shots helped Samara stay relatively close, but Konovalov scored the final shot of the first quarter to make it 30:20.
At the start of the second period, Danila Pokhodyaev and Artyom Pivtsaikin combined for 7 points, but that was perhaps the last moment in the game where the outcome was worrying. Zakhar Vedishchev hit a 3-pointer, then saw an open lane to the hoop and made a successful run. Ishchenko followed with two similar points, but a minute later, Zakhar landed awkwardly and was escorted off the court by doctors. Good health to the player!
Lokomotiv, meanwhile, continued to steadily increase their lead: Kirill Temirov hit a shot from the corner, Ishchenko made a steal and hit two free throws, and Moore made a three?.. No – the referees counted it as a two-pointer. In the final minute of the quarter, Miller scored 4 points, and Ishchenko three, 58:35.
Moore‘s layup set the tone for the 3rd quarter: Hunter soon hit a hook shot from under the basket, blocked Kosyakov in the next episode, and Ishchenko dunked Samara into another timeout, 66:35. Miller and Anton Kvitkovskikh increased Lokomotiv’s lead to 36 points, and then the crowd witnessed four 3-pointers in the space of a minute: Moore, Kulagin, Konovalov, and Pokhodyaev. The end of the period was also action-packed: Konovalov‘s steal and breakaway, an alley-oop by Alexander Kuznetsov and Kosyakov, and Samoylenko‘s shot from his own end at the buzzer that went very short from the basket—though 83:48 was still a comfortable lead for us.
As the game resumed, Cheburkin responded to Ilya Popov‘s two points with a 3-pointer, which didn’t go in immediately, but bounced off the hoop about two meters high. Sheyanov converted a long-range attempt, Samoylenko caught Kulagin fouling, and Moore scored from a long range. It was 91:53, and two questions remained: how soon would Lokomotiv surpass 100 points, and who exactly would score the milestone shot. It all happened in the 37th minute, when Sheyanov dunked in a brilliant pass from Ishchenko. In the remaining 3 minutes, our team only scored 4 points, but they only allowed their opponents to make 2 more.
Lokomotiv-Kuban scored triple-digit points for the eighth time this season (including two Winline Basket Cup games).
Our next opponent will be from a completely different part of the standings – on March 29, we’ll play UNICS (currently 2nd) in Kazan. Go, Loko! We believe in the team!