The path to this result was pretty tough. In the first semifinal game, Loko lost to Greek side Amaroussi 86:91. Everything was decided in the next game: in the last minute, our team secured the necessary margin of victory, 75:67, and advanced to the final.
Igor Kudelin led our team in scoring with 17 points, 15 of which came from long-range shots. Eurelijus Žukauskas recorded a double-double (16+12), while Goran Jagodnik and Andrey Vedishchev, who would become Lokomotiv’s general director a few months later, each added 11 points.
An interesting detail: 19-year-old Vasilis Spanoulis, who would later become the highest-scoring player in Euroleague history, played for Amaroussi in the first game.
This run to the final was historic for one more reason—Lokomotiv became the first club from the USSR and Russia to reach the final stage of the Korać Cup. Moreover, this happened in the tournament’s final edition.