Krasnodar’s Lokomotiv-Kuban defeated Kazan’s UNICS at home, 107–80 (33–21, 29–23, 26–16, 19–20).
Main Story
From the very first minutes on the court, both teams played an offensive style of basketball. In a back-and-forth game early on, there was no clear favorite. But toward the end of the first quarter, accurate shots by Gleb Firsov and Marcos Knight sparked a run by Loko, after which the home team’s lead reached double digits—30–18. The home team didn’t stop there. In the second 10-minute period, their offense continued to perform with the same efficiency. By halftime, the Kuban team had scored 62 points, and Lokomotiv’s lead had grown to “+18”—62–44.
Neither the halftime break nor Milan Karakas’ emotional timeout in the very first minute of the third quarter managed to rouse UNICS. Kuban continued to extend their lead. After a three-pointer by Trevelin Queen, Lokomotiv’s lead reached 31 points—83–52. The home team only eased off in the final 10 minutes, though that didn’t prevent them from securing a confident victory.
X-Factor
The home team focused on two-point shots in this game. They made 36 shots from mid-range and close range, setting a record for the current season.
Interesting Facts: Loko snapped UNICS’ winning streak (5 straight wins). For the Krasnodar team itself, today’s victory marked their fourth in a row.
Thanks to today’s win, Loko has solidified its hold on second place in the standings. The Kuban team now has 6 wins in 7 games.
Loko has yet to lose at home in the current season—5 wins in 5 games.
Loko set a new scoring record for the current season. The Kuban team surpassed the 100-point mark for the first time.
Press Conference
Tomislav Tomović, Head Coach of Lokomotiv-Kuban: – First of all, I must say that the final score shouldn’t be misleading. UNICS is a very strong team with top-class players and a coaching staff that does an excellent job. And every team has its off days.
Today we played our best game of the season. And I’m proud of the team. I would have been proud of them even if we’d won by just one point and the game hadn’t been so high-scoring. Because I’m very pleased with exactly how we secured this victory. We played like a true team: 32 assists and only 11 turnovers. The players fought for every ball and gave their all on defense. Today we saw the direction we need to head in. The season is long—there will be good days and bad days. But if we play like we did today, anything is possible.
UNICS Head Coach Milan Karakas: – I congratulate our opponent on a well-deserved victory. As for us, when you give up 107 points, you could spend a very long time talking about your mistakes. Before the game, I said we needed to pay attention to the number of turnovers we were committing and to how Lokomotiv was running away with fast breaks. We weren’t able to control any of that. On top of that, we played too soft—for example, in the third quarter, our opponent managed to score 23 points before we committed our first foul. And our 16 missed free throws speak to our concentration issues. All in all, we played an incredibly weak game. We’ll work hard to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Top Performers
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Alen Hadzibegović (23), Gleb Firsov (15), Trevelin Queen (13), Andrey Lopatin (13), Patrick Miller (13 + 8 assists), Kirill Temirov (10)
UNICS: Jalen Reynolds (15 + 5 rebounds), Brendan Adams (15), Luka Šamanic (13 + 5 rebounds), C.J. Bryce (10 + 7 rebounds)
Up Next
Lokomotiv-Kuban: November 7 at home against BETCITY PARMA
UNICS: November 6 on the road against Avtodor.
