Lokomotiv-Kuban beat Zenit at home – 96:81 (21:21, 21:15, 25:22, 29:23).
Top scorers
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Jordan Crawford (23), Mindaugas Kuzminskas (20+7 rebounds), Reggie Lynch (16+6 blocks), Kevin Hervey (12+10 rebounds), Will Cummings (11), Mantas Kalnietis (7+12 assists)
Zenit: Arturas Gudaitis (18+9 rebounds), K.C. Rivers (15), Austin Hollins (15), Andrei Zubkov (10+7 rebounds)
Story
In the game of the week one of contenders Lokomotiv-Kuban played against Zenit that haven’t suffered a defeat. They really wanted to prolong their winning streak to 8 games in Basket Hall.
However, Kuban took the initiative immediately. All the first quarter long Krasnodar were up ahead, making Zenit the chasing team. Evgeny Pashutin was experimenting riskly, at some point 17-years old Yaroslav Nyagu went on the court, it was his second game for Loko. However, the first quarter wasn’t a catastrophe for the guests: on last minutes Alex Poythress started a mini-run, and Zenit evened the score – 21:21.
The remaining time of the second quarter was equal. Arturas Gudaitis and Austin Hollins even managed to bring the lead to Zenit but in the ending of the quarter Jordan Crawford was on fire and Stanislav Ilnitskiy summarized the quarter with accurate three. The hosts went on the half time break up by 6 – 42:36.
Key moment
It was only round one for Jordan Crawford. At the start of the third he scored 2 and-ones and made Loko’s lead double digit – 47:36. And then another and-one by him! Then, Kevin Hervey drained a three, thus the situation for the guests was catastrophic – Loko were up by 17. Hervey and Crawford kept the lead for a few minutes and Mindaugas Kuzminskas increased the lead to 20 points. However, the intrigue was alive – Arturas Gudaitis and Andrei Zubkov spent amazing quarter ending leaving chances for Zenit. 67:58 by the final quarter.
Krasnodar didn’t want to lose the victory. Reggie Lynch replaced tired Crawford in role of the main hero. He was perfect in defense, in last quarter he showed his best offensive game this season ignoring Zenit’s players in paint. Mindaugas Kuzminskas and Kevin Hervey supported their center increasing the lead again. Petersburg couldn’t reduce the gap in the rest time. Zenit lose for the first time in the season to Lokomotiv-Kuban.
Hero
Reggie Lynch. Although the American wasn’t the top scorer leaving it to Jordan Crawford but he was useful on both ends of the floor. His 8 points in the final quarter didn’t let Zenit start a comeback, Lynch played perfect at D. His 6 blockshots – League’s record repeat, in addition he made 2 steals.
Stat
1 – Zenit suffer first defeat in the season.
Comments
Lokomotiv-Kuban head coach Evgeny Pashutin:
– I want to congratulate the team and thank the fans. Today the atmosphere was special, we felt the support. Zenit play well in VTB League, they have long bench and good rotation. We knew we should stop their sharpshooters and play carefully with the bigs. We were attentive on the perimeter, opponents’ shots were contested. At times we risked, playing Gudaitis in one-on-one, he scored his points but perimeter players scored less. Showed our tight defense and controlled the game. Team spirit, energy and ball movement look like what we want to see on the court. We are growing but we understand that the job is not finished.
Zenit head coach Xavi Pascual:
— Firstly, congratulations to Lokomotiv on the victory. They were better this game, thus they won. Today there were 2 games in 1, first prolonged 18 minutes, both teams were involved, were fighting in the defense and offense, it was till the score turned 33:36. Then we made a few mistakes in the end of the second quarter. Then Loko were better. We were fighting but it was impossible.
Next
Lokomotiv-Kuban: December 23 vs Tsmoki-Minsk
Zenit: December 26 @ Astana
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