Loko performed one of the best fourth quarters in the season – 30 points without going the extra mile. Krasnodar showed very confident shooting – 11/12 2-pointers and 2/3 from downtown. Lokomotiv Kuban went a well-known way of effective threes and earned a 13-point advantage after the first period.
Loko failed to get a point during first three minutes of the second quarter. However, VEF got only 3 points. After Johnson’s penetration and Fridzon’s fast break, the Lithuanians had to take a timeout – we didn’t see comeback.
Captain Dmitry Kulagin played spectacularly: 11 points and 3 assists in the first half. Vitaly Fridzon held his guns but also gladly shot 2-pointers. His six points in two quarters returned him the title of the top scorer in the VTB League’s history.
After the big break, the game didn’t change. Loko continued dominating on both ends. At the last minute of the third quarter, Ilya Platonov, a player of the Loko young team, went on the court. He became the second young first-timer at the start of the season.
Only Russian players played in the fourth quarter of the game. Platonov got his first points for the main team from the free throws line and successfully attempted from downtown.
As a result, Loko’s advantage grew to 30 points – 92:63 – Loko continued its home winning streak.
The top scorer of the game was Vitaly Fridzon with 18 points and 3 steals.
Dmitry Kulagin and Dmitry Khvostov added 11 points each. Isaiah Whitehead got 10 points and 3 assists.
