The game opened with a steal and 2 points from Patrick Miller. CSKA responded with several perimeter shots, and for a time, Loko had enough momentum to answer quite properly; but somewhere near the 4th minute, the Krasnodar side’s team play set to a complete halt. It was impossible to go through the opponent’s crowded paint, and one turnover followed another (it was 9 in the 1st quarter alone). The only Loko’ points at this stretch were made thanks to isolation plays by Miller or Jeremiah Martin. The first buzzer rang at the score of 12:25 in favor of the hosts.
In the 2nd quarter, Loko became more daring at shooting from the perimeter, and this had some effect: over a short stretch, Makar Konovalov, Miller, and Martin scored 3 points each, while Mike Moore—though he missed his long-range attempt—grabbed the rebound and put the ball in from close range. But the gap kept growing, as CSKA’s sharpshooters were connecting more frequently: by halftime, they had hit 8 of 13 three-pointers, compared to our 5 of 15. To top it off, Ivan Ukhov sank a buzzer-beater—albeit a two-pointer—setting the score at 36:55 as the teams headed to the locker rooms.
The comeback needed to begin from the very first seconds of the 3rd quarter—and Loko delivered: Martin and Moore drained one more 3-pointer each, while Miller was fouled on during a long-range shot attempt, subsequently sinking all three free throws to make it 45:55—we got back in the game! Melo Trimble immediately answered with a contested long-range shot; Luka Mitrović came up with a steal; and the officials whistled Vince Hunter for a foul on Trimble—a call the Krasnodar center disputed so hard that he was hit with a technical foul as well. Shortly thereafter, a 2+1 by Semyon Antonov pushed the deficit to 21 points.
Moore came to the rescue, scoring 5 straight points—a run he punctuated with a steal. Martin was whistled for a foul while battling for the ball with Antonius Cleveland; Casper Ware scored on a drive to the basket; then Vsevolod Ishchenko rattled off 5 straight points of his own, bringing the score to 57:70. A technical foul called on Kirill Temirov for flopping triggered another technical—on Tomislav Tomović for arguing with the officials—and Samson Ruzhentsev calmly converted 4 free throws in a row. Anton Kvitkovskikh quickly responded with a 3-pointer; Hunter blocked a long-range attempt by Cleveland; but CSKA retained possession, and Ware drained a shot from beyond the arc, setting the score at 62:78 by the final break.
The 3-point shootout continued in the 31st minute: Kvitkovskikh, Trimble, and Temirov scored one each. Ware attempted to keep the streak alive but was met with a block by Martin, and Temirov sent CSKA into a timeout making it 70:81. Upon the resumption of play, Ware finally connected on a long-range shot, but Kvitkovskikh responded immediately with a 3+1 play! Ware kept scoring from beyond the arc, but Moore did the exact same thing following an offensive rebound by Kvitkovskikh. Then Livio Jean-Charles got on a scoring streak: his first basket was answered by Ishchenko‘s free throws; after Jean-Charles‘s second basket, Temirov cut open and took a reversely-up—but the officials did not call goaltending on Jean-Charles, and the score remained 78:91.
This seemed only to fire Temirov up, and on the very next possession, he scored 3 points. Then it was Ishchenko’s turn: he sank 2 free throws and blocked a shot by Ware; but then the aim of the Loko sharpshooters went awry—two consecutive misses from afar—and Nikita Kurbanov’s emphatic dunk forced Tomović to call a timeout, with the score at 83:95 with 2.5 minutes remaining.
After the break, Loko unleashed another run: 2 points from Miller, a steal by Ishchenko followed by 1 of 2 free throws made, another steal by Ishchenko, and a dunk by Miller—7:0 in just 38 seconds of actual playing time, bringing the score to 88:95 with 1:48 left on the clock! At that point, it was the CSKA coach who called for a timeout.
Play resumed, and Kurbanov found a path to the basket, slamming another dunk. Immediately afterward, Ishchenko committed a costly turnover, and Ukhov drained a 3-pointer—the margin was back to 12 points. Kvitkovskikh scored off an alley-oop pass from Miller, but Kurbanov extinguished any remaining suspense by hitting a shot from the perimeter—a 13-point gap with 50 seconds left is simply insurmountable…
Once again, Loko showed great character, but too deep was the hole the team put themselves in the 1st half in. Now, a series for 3rd place awaits us. Our opponent will be determined either on Monday (if Zenit wins that day) or on Thursday (if that series goes to Game 7). The battle for bronze begins on June 1st—we kick things off in either St. Petersburg or Kazan.