From the very first minute, both teams played really hard: points during this period were scored primarily from the free throw line, although Livio Jean-Charles and Vince Hunter deserve special mention for their impressive field goal performances. After Ivan Ukhov‘s three-pointer, CSKA took a 9:3 lead, but then Vsevolod Ishchenko entered the game, scoring first from beyond the arc, then with a foul, after which the game remained within 2-4 points for a while. Towards the end of the quarter, fouls began to rain again, with both teams attempting a combined 18 free throws by the 10th minute. The home team was more accurate and at one point led by 7 points, but Patrick Miller‘s shot under hard contact sealed the final score of the period – 18:23 in favor of CSKA.
Then Jeremiah Martin stepped into the spotlight: a block on Melo Trimble, 2+1, and a wild floater that brought the game to within one possession, 24:26. It didn’t take long for the score to tie: Kirill Temirov made a steal and raced away on a counterattack. Trimble and Casper Ware continued to struggle in scoring, but CSKA consistently got second-chance points, allowing them to run away by “+4”. With Alen Hadzibegovic‘s entry, Lokomotiv’s rebounding improved, and soon the score was tied again, and then Temirov scored a very high lob – 34:32, and the Moscow coach called a timeout. After the break, Samson Ruzhentsev scored 2+1, and the game opened up a bit: before the big break, the lead changed 8 more times, with the teams repeatedly scoring exactly 2 points each – 42:43 in favor of CSKA by the time the teams went to the locker rooms.
At the start of the 3rd quarter, Hunter showed a decent example of how to fight for 50-50 balls, which clearly inspired Ishchenko: the Lokomotiv guard scored 6 points in a row, 48:45. Then CSKA switched to long-range scoring: Nikita Kurbanov made two perimeter shots, and Semyon Antonov another. Fortunately, Mike Moore‘s three-pointer was sandwiched between those shots, keeping the margin small, 51:54. Hadzibegovic also hit a pretty-long-range shot—even if it was just a two-pointer—and soon he gave our team the lead, which a few seconds later was already “+4” in our favor, thanks to Ishchenko‘s shot from the corner, 58:54. Then, former Loko and current CSKA player Antonius Cleveland had a good run, so even despite Hadzibegovic‘s dunk, the opponent led 62:65 by the end of the period.
Neither Moore‘s three-pointer, nor Hadzibegovic‘s put-back, nor Martin‘s shot, which bounced for a while around the hoop before sinking, made Lokomotiv any closer for some time. At 73:77 mark, the score remained stable for a couple of minutes, until Hadzibegovic finally dunked on a fast break. Then the intensity spiked again, and for a while the teams exchanged free throws, with Trimble being slightly more accurate than Miller—thus with 3.5 minutes left, we were down 78:79. Long possessions followed, with no points scored. It seemed like Lokomotiv had wasted another one at the end of the 38th minute, but Miller scored an incredible fade-away shot, over the hands of two defenders, and right at the 24-second buzzer, making it 80:79.
Jean-Charles earned free throws and made both. In the next possession, Miller missed his shot. Jean-Charles decided to go for a three-pointer – and also missed. Martin seemed to save the ball in a tight fight, but suddenly slipped and stepped out of bounds, and Trimble made his free throws – 80:83 at the last minute. A three-pointer was urgently needed–and Moore made it! Trimble was throwing for the win–missed once again (the regular season MVP made just one field goal out of 15 attempts for the game). Miller also had a chance to win the game, but also missed. Extra time!
The extra 5 minutes began with Ware‘s missed long-range shot and 2 free throws from Martin. Then Hadzibegovic made a steal and dunked on a breakaway. Before CSKA got back to their senses, Temirov stole the ball from Trimble, and Ishchenko made it 89:83! A timeout didn’t help the hosts: Cleveland got blocked by Hadzibegovic, and Martin executed a masterful reverse layup–the 8-point lead at the 2-minute mark!
Ware finally made it from beyond the arc. The rest of CSKA started shooting three-pointers, missing 3 attempts. Loko tried to use up every 24 seconds on each attack, but they couldn’t score either, until Ishchenko got under the hoop, where he gathered 3 guards on himself and passed the ball to an open Hadzibegovic, 93:86 with just 50 seconds left!
Immediately, Hadzibegovic made his 4th block of the game, stopping a long-range attempt by Ruzhentsev, and CSKA’s continued attack was interrupted by Hunter, who blocked Trimble‘s layup and grabbed the ball. Lokomotiv’s center was fouled, made both free throws, and it was clear that victory was in the bag–nine points in 26 seconds couldn’t be made up.
The teams will play again on May 14 at 7:30 PM. Those who want to support our team in the stands of Moscow’s Megasport arena can contact us via the club’s Telegram channel.
Go, Loko!