Before the match, Patrick Miller received the MVP award for March from Olympic champion Irina Karavayeva – and the Lokomotiv captain organized what is perhaps the best photo in the history of this award.
Thanks to Anton Kvitkovskikh‘s free throws and Miller‘s 2+1, the Krasnodar team took a 5:0 lead in the 1st minute. MBA-MAI leader Andrei Zubkov had a dizzy start: he committed an offensive foul, then appeared to steal the ball and run to the unprotected hoop, but Kvitkovskikh managed to block the shot,and scored a 3-pointer seconds later. On the other hand, it was the 3-pointers that kept the Moscow alive: Pavel Savkov, Vladislav Trushkin, and Maxim Lichutin scored. Lokomotiv, in turn, produced several spectacular plays: Miller‘s alley-oop on Vince Hunter, Vsevolod Ishchenko‘s breakaway, and Kirill Temirov‘s dunk. Towards the end of the quarter, Ishchenko scored 2+1, Jeremiah Martin made a steal and passed to Ilya Popov, who put the ball in the basket right at the buzzer – 26:18.
Lokomotiv certainly played with fire in those minutes. Unstoppable Ishchenko brought the lead to double digits, Makar Konovalov scored a good one, Mike Moore hit a mid-range shot, then a long-range one, and the entire team was rebounding well, leading to second-chance points, third-chance points, and even fourth-chance points. The team was great on defense–even Miller, the shortest player on the home team, made a block. This limited the opponent to just 13 points in the quarter, and Loko scored a buzzer-beater again–Martin made it 50:31.
The 3rd quarter began with several turnovers, but gradually, both teams found a rhythm and began attacking effectively. Lokomotiv managed to pull ahead a bit more thanks to Miller finding a foul on a three-point shot, and Ivan Samoylenko stealing MBA-MAI’s throw-in. However, Savkov and Danil Pevnev each scored 3-pointers to make it 62:45, forcing Tomislav Tomović‘s first timeout of the game. Soon, Ishchenko picked up his 4th personal foul, matching Savkov‘s tally—both, however, remained on the court. The rest of the period was a bit chaotic, with occasional bursts of play, like Martin‘s basket. Comparing to the start of the quarter, the margin remained unchanged at 70:51.
In an attempt to start the chase, MBA-MAI upped the tempo, and with it, the intensity soared: in a short period, Trushkin, Popov (with their fifth personal fouls), and Zubkov (with his second technical) were eliminated. The Muscovites’ nascent momentum was snuffed out by Miller, who scored 2+1, and Moore, who made a steal and hit two free throws. 76:55 – to outplay that much in 6 minutes was akin to a miracle. And when Savkov was also eliminated with his fifth foul, any doubts about the outcome vanished. Before the end of the game, spectators witnessed an acrobatic layup by Konovalov, a windmill dunk by Ishchenko, four points by Danil Sheyanov, and the appearance of Pavel Ryabkov, who played 18 minutes for the junior team hours before.
With this victory, Lokomotiv has moved beyond BETCITY PARMA’s reach and continues to chase Zenit, who are two wins ahead. Our next goal is to beat CSKA in Moscow on April 7. We believe in the team!