Krasnodar’s Lokomotiv-Kuban defeated Samara on the road, 92–62 (21–17, 28–14, 24–15, 19–16).
Main Story: Following their victory over Zenit, Lokomotiv took the court for this road game with a lineup consisting primarily of Russian players. Ivan Samoylenko seized his opportunity, earning a spot in the starting five for the 10th time in his career. The guard scored 10 points before halftime, making 3 of 5 three-pointers. He was supported off the bench by Marcos Knight, who added 10 points of his own. This allowed Krasnodar to head into halftime with a comfortable 18-point lead.
In the second half, Patrick Miller took the court by storm, quickly becoming the game’s leading scorer. The visitors solidified their advantage on the boards and played much more tightly on defense, ultimately earning 20 free throws compared to their opponents’ 8. The game ended with a 30-point victory for them.
X-Factor: Loko dominated the battle in the paint, with a domination on boards, 51–32.
Interesting Facts: Daniil Ginko made his league debut for Samara, scoring 14 points with 4 assists and 3 steals.
Artem Koryakovsky scored his first points in the VTB League.
Gleb Firsov set a new personal record and matched his best rebounding total of the current season—15.
Loko’s 51 team rebounds rank second in the current championship.
Press Conference
Samara Head Coach, Milos Pavicevic: – Unfortunately, our offense didn’t click today; we missed our “easy” shots and couldn’t score around the basket… Because of that, we lost our confidence. We lost the battle on the boards, even though our defense didn’t seem that bad—but we let our opponent score a lot of “second-chance” points. And there were a lot of unnecessary fouls… Daniil Ginko? I know him well; he played for me at “Lokomotiv-Kuban-2,” and I know what he’s capable of—that’s why we invited him to join us. We’ll see how things go from here, but I’m very optimistic about it.
Lokomotiv-Kuban Head Coach Tomislav Tomović: – I liked our team’s approach to the game and how we started playing—that’s what I’m satisfied with. Our players treated the upcoming match and our opponent with respect. Now we need to head home; I hope the trip back will be easier than the one we took to get here. And we need to prepare for the next game. The trip to Samara? Things like that can always happen when various circumstances come into play. We had a long train ride, but I’m proud that the players, despite everything, started the match with the right attitude—so the trip didn’t affect them at all.
Top performers
Samara: Danila Pokhodyaev (15 points + 5 rebounds), Daniil Ginko (14)
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Patrick Miller (16 points, 8 assists), Ivan Samoylenko (13), Marcos Knight (12 points, 5 rebounds), Andrey Lopatin (12 points, 6 rebounds), Anton Kvitkovskikh (10 points, 6 rebounds), Gleb Firsov (8 points, 15 rebounds)
Up Next:
Samara: November 3, away against BETCITY PARMA
Lokomotiv-Kuban: November 1, at home against UNICS.
