Before the game, Vsevolod Ishchenko received the Melbet monthly award for Lokomotiv’s best player in March. Congratulations to him and our best wishes for his progress to be continued!
On the very first attack, Mike Moore hit what initially looked like a 3-pointer, but turned out to make the score 2:0. But on the next attack, Moore hit an undisputed long-range shot. And off it went: Patrick Miller‘s behind-the-back assist to Vince Hunter, Kirill Temirov‘s dunk, Miller‘s 2+1, Temirov‘s reverse layup – 16:7 was on the scoreboard by the start of the 5th minute.
The showtime didn’t stop: Miller‘s slam dunk, two excellent isolation plays by Jeremiah Martin, a counterattack started by Alen Hadzibegovic‘s steal and finished by him after two Globetrotter-style passes. And at the end of the quarter, Martin dunked – his first such basket in his time with Lokomotiv! 32:14, a stretch, magnificent in every sense!
Pari NN attempted a counter-run, but at the 0:5 mark, it was erased by Danil Sheyanov‘s long-range shot and Hadzibegovic‘s dunk. Martin then made another steal and sent Makar Konovalov to score some easy points – 40:21, and Sergei Kozin called a timeout.
After that, the Nizhny Novgorod team also treated the crowd to a couple of spectacular moments: Dmitry Khvostov‘s alley-oop to Norbert Lukacs and a clever series of passes, finished from under the basket by Lukacs. Soon, Sergei Zotkin and again Lukacs cut the gap to just 11 points, 43:32. Both teams were really fired up by this point, and the proceedings began to resemble less an All-Star Game and more a playoff game—with heavy contact and an abundance of fouls, some even unsportsmanlike. Three-pointers by Moore and Anton Kvitkovskikh, a block by Miller against Ilya Karpenkov, and a buzzer-beater by Hunter brought the margin to the same level by the break as it had been after the first quarter—57:39.
Hadzibegovic opened the 3rd quarter with a dunk, and in Lokomotiv’s next attack, Miller was completely forgotten by the opponent’s guards under the basket – 61:39. Pari NN played rather paradoxical during this stretch: they seemed to be scoring easily and even playfully, but at the same time they were falling further and further behind. For Lokomotiv, Temirov, Miller, Kvitkovskikh, and Hadzibegovic all scored spectacularly – by the end of the period, they had all reached double-digit scoresheets, and the total score left little doubt about the outcome – 81:53.
В заключительной десятиминутке Локобенефис продолжился: Мартин принялся забивать один мяч искуснее другого, Шеянов из-за спины отдал Коновалову пас, с которого Макар набрал своё 1000-е очко в Единой Лиге ВТБ, потом снова включился Мартин – его второй за минуту трёхочковый позволил «Локо» в девятый раз за сезон (7 – в лиге, 2 – во внутрисезонном кубке) перевалить за отметку 100 очков за матч. Вышел Павел Рябков – и тоже попал из-за дуги, а вскоре добавил к этому 2+1. А когда забил Илья Попов, то набранными очками отметились все 12 игроков краснодарской команды.
The carnival kept going in the final ten minutes: Martin began scoring one basket better than the other, Sheyanov passed behind his back to Konovalov, which let Makar score his 1,000th point in the VTB United League, and then Martin was back in action – his second 3-pointer in a minute allowed Loko to surpass 100 points in a game for the 9th time this season (7 in the league, 2 in the intra-season cup). Pavel Ryabkov came off the bench and also hit a 3-pointer, and soon added 2+1. And when Ilya Popov scored, all 12 players from the Krasnodar team got some points.
This defeat deprived the Volga team of a playoff chance, but the Krasnodar team continues to chase Zenit. The red-greens will play their next game on April 18th, when BETCITY PARMA comes to Krasnodar. See you in the Basket Hall!