Aleksej Pokuševski opened the scoring, Ilya Karpenkov quickly equalized, but Loko’s lead soon began to grow rapidly—much like a continuation of the previous game, the one where UNICS was smashed. Patrick Miller and Alen Hadzibegovic connected on an alley-oop; Anton Kvitkovskih came up with a steal and set Miller up for an easy basket; then Kvitkovskih himself sank 2 three-pointers in the span of a minute (one of them following a brilliant set play). After Ivan Samoylenko grabbed a steal, Hadzibegovic hammered home a dunk—and it became 17:4 halfway through the quarter!
Then, BETCITY PARMA began to rise from the ashes: Stanislav Ilnitsky hit 1 of 2 free throws, Joshua Primo converted both of his, and then Jeremiah Martin took charge—his signature drives to the rim along the left side repeatedly spiked Loko’s defense. Although Trevelin Queen and Marcos Knight kept scoring for Loko, a dunk by Lev Svinin at the end of the opening ten minutes narrowed the gap, 23:18.
Early in the 2nd quarter, Martin narrowed the gap to a single possession. Although Loko missed on their next attack, Knight immediately came up with a steal and drained a 3-pointer. The two sides locked into a gritty battle—the kind of “tooth-and-nail” contest often mentioned by PARMA head coach Yevgeny Pashutin—with both teams scoring exclusively from the free-throw line for a stretch of several minutes. As soon as Queen scored from the field (in spectacular fashion, no less), the visitors called a timeout.
The break proved far more beneficial for the hosts: immediately upon the restart, Andrei Lopatin recorded a steal, setting up a basket for Pokuševski. Martin and Svinin both scored from close range, but Loko countered each of these baskets with a 3-pointer—courtesy of Lopatin and Maxim Barashkov. Then, it became Queen’s show; the guard began hitting shots from everywhere on the floor, regardless of the defensive pressure. His 8 points in just a minute and a half pushed the lead back into double digits, at 47:36.
Once again, BETCITY PARMA rallied toward the end of the quarter: Martin drove to the left, Primo attacked to his signature right side, and Isaiah Whaley began finding his rhythm. However, a long-range buzzer-beater from Pokuševski gave Lokomotiv a slight boost, bringing the score to 52:43.
The 2nd half began with a steal and a dunk by Queen. A minute later, the opposition was assessed both a destructive foul (Tyrell Nelson) and a technical one (Pashutin) in the same sequence. Lopatin scored 5 points in a short span—with another dunk by Queen sandwiched in between—and following a putback by Hadzbegovic, Loko extended their lead to 15 points, 65:50. Another spectacular moment followed on the next possession: Pokuševski delivered a behind-the-back bounce-pass assist to Miller from about five meters away.
However, the lead evaporated as soon as a couple of possessions failed to yield points, with BETCITY PARMA beginning to rack up scores once again: Brian Fobbs notched 5 points in half a minute, and Primo found an open lane to the rim for a dunk, making it 67:61. Crucial baskets from Knight and Miller steadied the ship; shortly after, Miller forced Primo into a backcourt violation, and moments later, Pokuševski drained a long-range shot to bring the score to 76:63. Even so, the visitors closed out the quarter strong: Martin hit a two-pointer, Whaley connected from beyond the arc, and Nelson finished a drive into the paint leaving the score at 79:70 in Loko’ favor heading into the final break.
На старте 4-й четверти пермяки успешно отбили несколько наших атак и подобрались на дистанцию 6 очков, а тут ещё и Александр Шашков накрыл лэй-ап Куина. Однако мяч остался у «Локо», и Самойленко забил очень важный трёхочковый, 83:74. Плотный прессинг Лопатина и Квитковских вынудил «ПАРМУ» нарушить правило 24 секунд, а Куин набрал сначала 2+1, потом ещё 2 — в борьбе, с классного паса Найта. Перехват Самойленко, но на сей раз Свинин разгадал намерение Куина и выписал нашему защитнику блок-шот. Вскоре Самойленко забил сам, из-за дуги, но Свинин ответил тем же, а Фоббс исполнил перехват и отыграл ещё 1 очко с линии штрафного, 91:82 за 3,5 минуты до сирены.
At the start of the 4th quarter, the Perm side successfully fended off several of our attacks, closing the gap to 6 points. Then Alexander Shashkov blocked a layup attempt by Queen. However, Loko retained possession, and Samoylenko hit a crucial 3-pointer, bringing the score to 83:74. Pressure from Lopatin and Kvitkovskikh forced PARMA into a shot-clock violation, and then Queen got another scoring spree: first a 2+1 play, then another basket off a fine pass from Knight. Samoylenko then came up with a steal, but this time Svinin anticipated Queen’s move and delivered a block. Shortly after, Samoylenko connected from beyond the arc, but Svinin responded in kind; Fobbs recorded a steal and added a point from the free-throw line, making it 91:82 with 3:30 remaining on the clock.
The decisive stretch of the game began with Queen‘s basket from under the rim. On the next possession, BETCITY PARMA struggled to find a shot, ultimately resulting in a traveling violation by Whaley. Miller raced out on the fast break to complete a 2+1 play. B.J. Johnson attempted to claw back 3 points but missed, and on the next play, Loko set up a long-range shot for—would you believe it?—Hadzibegovic! Alas, he couldn’t convert either.
With time running out for the visitors, Whaley took a 3-point shot—another miss. Meanwhile, Miller connected his own attempt from afar, pushing the score to 99:82! The opponent called a timeout, but the play drawn up by their coach remained unseen—Miller came up with a steal and added 2 more points from the free-throw line.
The following possession for BETCITY PARMA ended with the 24-second shot-clock buzzer, after which Knight launched a long-range shot off the dribble and nailed it! At the end of the 39th minute, Martin and Knight exchanged quick 2-pointers—and those proved to be the final points of today’s game.
Loko’s winning streak has now reached 5 games. Our next one is this Sunday, November 15, against UNICS as part of the Winline Basket Cup. The start is set at 2:00 PM. Come out and cheer us on!