Lokomotiv Kuban beat Samara on the road – 80:77 (20:18, 18:16, 20:17, 22:26).
The best scorers
Samara: James Ennis (19 + 7 rebounds), Marcos Knight (13), Jordan Theodore (11 + 7 assists), Nikita Zverev (10 + 6 rebounds), KC Rivers (10 + 5 rebounds)
Lokomotiv Kuban: Andrey Martiuk (22 + 11 rebounds + 3 blocks), Jaylen Barford (14 + 7 assists), Darral Willis (12 + 10 rebounds)
Game progress
Samara won 1 out of 5 games due to roster problems and the 7th place in the standings. Lokomotiv Kuban had a positive balance of 8-6 and closed the Top 5 with 2 wins in a row.
According to Sergey Bazarevich, injuries and illnesses affected the Volga Region training process. This affects on the shooting percentage. If in the first quarter (18:20) the hosts compensated this with James Ennis and Nikita Zverev actions in the paint. Then in the second quarter, Loko managed to create a double-digit lead. For the first 5.5 minutes, Samara scored only 3 points, and the Krasnodar team led by 10 points with Andrey Martiuk help. Samara woke up after Anton Kardanakhishvili shot. K.C. Rivers and Ennis immediately joined and then Anton made an alley-oop on Zverev. Despite 3 out of 17 of three-pointers, the newcomer trailed by only 4 points after the first half (34:38).
Lokomotiv continued to control the game in the second half. After Kirill Elatontsev 2 made shots in 40 seconds (one of them was and-one) and Darral Willis free-throws, the guests led 58:45 2 minutes before the end of the third quarter. Samara responded with Jordan Theodore (twice) and Marcos Knight actions and made a 6:0 run in 1 minute and saved the Volga team chances in this game – 51:58 before the decisive quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the opponents scored a lot. After Theodore drive and Rivers three-pointer in a fastbreak, Samara moved the game to the clutch – 65:68.
The key moment
In the decisive minutes, Samara switched from three-point shots to guards drives. It worked, but Loko still held it back. In one of the episodes, Martiuk made 2 blocks in 1 possession and in the next one he made a fadeaway shot. Aleksandr Shcherbenev three-pointer and Elatontsev offensive rebound were very important.
The intrigue was until the last seconds, when Lokomotiv again made another offensive rebound: Willis scored the second chance points after Jaylen Barford miss with 78:77 and 4 seconds before the end. Samara saving possession after Bazarevich timeout was stretched for a couple minutes, but it was impossible to make a good shot. Rivers attacked from an awkward position under the siren and missed.
Hero
Andrey Martiuk. The Russian played one of the best games with 22 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks with 8 of 11 from the game.
Numbers
13 points are Loko max lead this game (5 out of 29).
What’s next
Samara: road game versus CSKA on December 13.
Lokomotiv Kuban: road game against MBA on December 12 .
