Loko opened the game with tenacious defense and a varied attack: Patrick Miller kicked things off with a 3-pointer; Kirill Temirov and Makar Konovalov both made successful drives to the rim; and Alen Hadzibegovic finished an alley-oop from Miller with a spectacular dunk—9:2 in the third minute. Just as he had in the opening minutes of the game two days prior, Andrei Martiuk began sinking shots, but the gap continued to grow: Miller and Temirov each drained a 3-pointer, and Vince Hunter scored in the paint over Martiuk, forcing Zenit to call a timeout at 19:8.
Buckets from Vsevolod Ishchenko and Jeremiah Martin briefly extended Loko’s lead to 13 points, but Xavier Moon shifted into “turbo mode” late in the quarter—scoring 7 consecutive points to bring the score to a fairly modest 26:20 in our favor by the end of the period.
Zenit tried to maintain their scoring momentum, twice narrowing the gap to 4 points early in the 2nd quarter, but Loko then stepped up their defense and began to pull away: Hunter scored on a fast break, Ishchenko added 2+1, and Hadzibegovic finished another alley-oop (this time from Martin); after another drive by Hunter, the lead reached a new high at 39:24.
The St. Petersburg side responded well again: Trent Frazier scored 4 points and drew an offensive foul from Miller, followed by 5 consecutive points from Alexander Shcherbenev to make it 41:35. Ishchenko halted the opponent’s run with successful free throws, and Temirov answered Moon’s long-range shot with a same shot of his own. The end of the quarter saw a flurry of free throws at both ends, with the halftime buzzer sounding at 50:44 in our favor.
Both teams started the 3rd quarter at a blistering pace—as if the long season behind them had never happened. Ishchenko and Hadzibegovic scored for Loko, while André Roberson caught fire for Zenit, racking up 7 consecutive points. Once the Krasnodar offense faltered slightly, the gap narrowed to a single possession—56:53 following a put-back by Martyuk. Andrei Vorontsevich even had a shot to tie the game but missed, and Miller sank both free throws on the ensuing possession. A minute later, Vorontsevich found himself open at the arc again—but missed once more. Ivan Samoylenko, however, converted his 3-point attempt—61:53. Over the next couple of minutes, the lead twice stretched to 10 points (both times courtesy of Hunter’s shots), but Vorontsevich finally connected from the perimeter and Luka Šamanić scored a few times; the teams headed into the final break with the same 6-point margin that had concluded both the 1st and 2nd quarters.
Mike Moore (from beyond the arc) and Ishchenko (from under the hoop) quickly extended Loko’s lead by another 5 points. On the visitors’ next possession, Moon was blocked twice—first by Moore, then by Hunter—and Martin scored on the fast break. The ensuing 2 minutes played out in a repetitive loop: Zenit was denied a clean shot, while Martin raced out in transition to score more and more easy points. By the 34th minute, the scoreboard showed a 20-point lead: 82:62.
At this point, Loko let their guard down a bit, and Zenit cut the deficit to 14 points. After our timeout, Ishchenko scored off a pass from Samoilenko; then, with Miller and Hadzibegovic adding baskets, victory seemed assured—the score stood at 90:72 with 2 1/2 minutes remaining.
But then the visitors mounted a final surge: desperate pressing, steals, and quick, decisive shots—Frazier and Vorontsevich hit 3-pointers, Šamanić drove into the paint for back-to-back dunks, and Frazier sank another shot from deep, bringing the score to 90:85 with 14 seconds left. Konovalov was fouled and made 1 of 2 free throws, ending Zenit’s momentum; Frazier attempted another 3-pointer over a defender but missed this time.
Interestingly, the teams played to a draw in 3 consecutive quarters, meaning the outcome was ultimately decided by the “fairly modest” 6-point lead Lokomotiv had established in the opening ten-minute period.
Thus, Lokomotiv-Kuban has turned a 0–2 series deficit into a 2–2 tie. The final game of our series against Zenit this season will take place in St. Petersburg on June 12 at 1:00 PM.
Let’s go, Loko! Wishing Elina from the cheer squad a quality and speedy recovery! We believe in the team!