Lokomotiv couldn’t count on Alen Hadzibegovic and Zakhar Vedishchev for this game due to injuries. UNICS suffered even more significant losses: Jalen Reynolds, Alexey Shved, Paris Lee, and DyShawn Pierre were all out.
Krasnodar fans continue to support our team on the road – a significant number of people in red and green arrived to Kazan (as they had recently to St. Petersburg and Samara). Thank you, Lokofamily!
The game didn’t start off well for Vsevolod Ishchenko – two missed free throws, a turnover, an unnecessary foul, and a substitution. With Ivan Samoylenko‘s entry, Lokomotiv’s play paced up: Anton Kvitkovskikh blocked Mikhail Belenitsky‘s shot, Vince Hunter dunked after a Patrick Miller pass, Samoylenko intercepted the ball and passed it to Kirill Temirov for two points, Hunter also intercepted – this time Kvitkovskikh dunked. Thus, 2:5 became 8:5.
Hunter defeinitely caught fire in those minutes – thanks to his shots, Lokomotiv’s lead grew to 5 points. However, that advantage quickly evaporated: UNICS scored 7 points in just one minute. Jeremiah Martin scored after a good run, and Mike Moore‘s steal led to Ishchenko scoring 2+1 – this allowed Loko to win the first quarter, 17:16.
The pace of the game picked up significantly, and the lead changed 4 times early in the 2nd quarter. Lokomotiv began to pull away after two consecutive isolations by Martin, but UNICS started pouring in from afar, and after baskets from Denis Zakharov, Dmitry Kulagin, and Ty Brewer, they took a 32:30 lead. Our team responded with Miller‘s alley-oop on Kvitkovskikh and Temirov‘s endeavours – his shot made it 36:32 in our favour. But Brewer scored again from the perimeter, a turnover by Hunter led to an unsportsmanlike foul by Miller, and Kulagin scored 4 points in one attack (a free throw and a long-range shot after maintaining possession). UNICS went into the big break with a narrow lead, 39:38.
As soon as the game resumed, Lokomotiv showed they also could hit threes: first Moore, then Temirov – 44:39, and UNICS called a timeout. After the break, Miller made a steal, but a turnover followed, and Andrey Lopatin scored three points. Miller scored once, twice, but for every 2-pointer from our captain, the opponent answered with a 3-pointer. The score became 50:50, and soon the numbers changed to 57:52 in favor of UNICS – Brewer made two more 3-pointers. Temirov again provided a boost of energy in a difficult moment – his steal and free throws helped minimise the gap by the end of the third quarter – 56:57.
Первые две атаки «Локо» в 4-й десятиминутке завершились блок-шотами Маркуса Бингэма. Но краснодарскую команду это не выбило из колеи: точные штрафные Миллера, данк Хантера, добивание Квитковских – 62:57, и снова наставнику УНИКСа пришлось брать ранний тайм-аут. В своей следующей атаке хозяева совершили целых четыре броска, пока Беленицкий не забил сверху. Промах Миллера со средней – и Кулагин с периметра сравнивает. Как всегда вовремя забивает Темиров, Миллер в следующем владении увеличивает наше преимущество до «+4», Захаров теряет мяч…
Loko’s first two attacks in the 4th period ended with Marcus Bingham blocks. But that didn’t derail the Krasnodar team: Miller‘s free throws, Hunter‘s dunk, Kvitkovskikh‘s put-back—62:57, and once again the UNICS coach had to call an early timeout. On their next attack, the hosts made 4 shots before Belenitsky dunked. Miller missed a mid-range shot, and Kulagin tied it from the perimeter. Temirov scored, as always, at the right time, Miller increased our lead to “+4” on the next possession, Zakharov lost the ball…
Then, a bad stretch for us followed, which lasted until the very buzzer. Miller‘s miss at the end of the possession, his one more miss after a breakthrough, Kvitkovskikh‘s turnover, Brewer‘s block on Hunter. With the score of 66:68, Brewer loses the ball, but we also allow a turnover. Lopatin gets the ball on the 3-point line and scores. With a minute and a half left in the game, Hunter is fouled and makes just 1 of 2 free throws. Bingham converts both free throws in the next episode, Hunter misses, Kulagin scores… Then goes a desperate attack from Lokomotiv, during which our players miss 3 times, and when UNICS finally grabs a rebound, the outcome of the game becomes clear.
With this defeat, Lokomotiv has made their chances of finishing third in the regular season much smaller, but as long as there’s still a chance, we’ll keep fighting. Our next opponent is MBA-MAI, who we play at home on Friday, April 3rd. See you in the stands at Basket Hall! Go, Loko!