Lokomotiv-Kuban defeated VEF on the road, 80-69 (23-27, 17-17, 29-14, 11-11).
Top Scorers
VEF: Mareks Mejeris (15+5 reb), Janis Blums (15), Abdul Gaddy (10+5 ast)
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Ryan Broekhoff (18+8 reb), Taylor Rochestie (18), Ian Vougioukas (11+6 reb)
Turning Point
Riga started strong, leading by four at halftime and limiting Lokomotiv to 40 points. But Sasa Obradovic made several adjustments during the break and Kuban opened the second half on a 10-0 to seize control of the game.
VEF hung around briefly, before another spurt, this time led by Loko forward Ryan Broekhoff, gave the visitors a 69-58 advantage through three quarters. VEF tried to bounce back in the 4th quarter, but Taylor Rochestie drilled a big ‘3’ with three minutes to go that made it a 12-point game.
Krasnodar goes on to win by 11, 80-69, keeping alive its hopes of catching Khimki for the 3 seed.
Stat
29 points – Kuban’s burst of offense in the 3rd quarter decided the outcome. By comparison, Lokomotiv only scored 11 points in the 4th.
Video
VEF vs Lokomotiv Kuban one minute highlights 📹 pic.twitter.com/NHNyITFq2q
— VTB United League (@VTBUL) April 13, 2017
Quotes
VEF head coach Janis Gailitis:
– We played a decent game. Of course, the first half went better for us. In the beginning, we were able to match the tempo set by Lokomotiv, but then our opponent picked up the pace and we started turning the ball over. We need to do a better job studying our opponent’s leaders and what they can do. Let me repeat: We weren’t bad today, but in order to beat teams like Lokomotiv-Kuban you need more than 1-2 players to play extremely well.
Lokomotiv-Kuban head coach Sasa Obradovic:
– Our opponent had a few surprises for us today, both on offense and with the zone defense, which slowed us down at the start. Then we started to be more aggressive and didn’t struggle with the zone anymore. Congratulations to the team on a difficult win. We keep battling for 3rd place in the standings.
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Up Next
VEF: April 23 at Avtodor
Lokomotiv-Kuban: April 16 vs. Kalev
