Basketball club «Astana» will play a rescheduled home match of the VTB United League against the Krasnodar team «Lokomotiv Kuban», a day after the game in Moscow. The match will take place in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Saryarka cycle track on Tuesday, February 15, starting at 19:00 capital time. Tickets are on sale on the Ticketon.kz website.

! ATTENTION — We ask all fans to carefully read the rules for attending home matches. Entrance to the arena will be carried out only through the Northern entrance (from the side of Orynbor street, opposite the gas station).

Lokomotiv Kuban is a Russian professional men's basketball club based in Krasnodar, founded in 1946. This season, in addition to participating in the VTB United League, he plays in the Eurocup.

Achievements:

• European Cup winner — 2012/2013
• Cup of Russia — 2000, 2018
• Winner of the International Russian Railways Cup — 2007, 2008
• Finalist of the European Cup — 2017/2018
• Finalist of the FIBA Cup − 2004/2005
• Finalist of the Challenge Cup — 2010/2011
• Korac Cup finalist — 2001/2002
• Finalist of the Cup of Russia — 2013/2014
• Bronze medalist of the Euroleague — 2015/2016
• Silver medalist of the VTB United League — 2012/2013
• Bronze medalist of the VTB United League — 2014/2015
• Bronze medalist of the Russian Championship − 2000/2001, 2001/2002, 2011/2012, 2014/2015

Roster:

In the off-season, the Krasnodar team noticeably changed their roster. Of the imports, only the American Alan Williams and the Serb Ivan Paunic, who left the Krasnodar team in January last season, have retained their Kuban registration, and this season he returned. It is worth noting that at one time he played in Astana. Also, four Russian players remained in the team — Stanislav Ilnitsky, as well as young players Vladislav Emchenko, Valery Kalinov, Andrey Martyuk, and Kirill Elatontsev. Americans Drew Gordon, Nigel William-Goss, Will Cummings, Reggie Lynch, and Kevin Hervey left the team. In addition, Lithuanians Mantas Kalnietis and Mindaugas Kuzminskas moved to «Zenit». Also, the team from Krasnodar did not declare young Russian players — Grigory Motovilov, Yegor Sychkov, Danil Sheyanov, and Kirill Korobko.

American guard Eric McColum, known to fans of the VTB United League, moved from «Khimki» to «Loko» this season, and before that he played in Kazan UNICS, Turkish «Galatasaray» and Anadolu «Efes», Chinese Beijing «Royal Fighters» and Zhejiang «Golden Bulls», Greek «Panionis» and «Apollo», as well as Israeli «Elitzur» and Hapoel «Kfar Sava». From the beginning of the season, the team was joined by the winner of the Eurocup — the American forward Stanton Kidd, who previously played in the American «Utah Jazz», the Belgian «Limburg United», the German «Tigers Tübingen», the Turkish «Darushafaka» and «Ormanspor», the Australian «Melbourne United» as well as the Israeli «Hapoel Jerusalem». Another newcomer to the team, American forward Greg Whittington, also has a rich international career. He played in his home country with the «Denver Nuggets» in the NBA and the «Sioux Falls Skyforce» in the NBA Development League, in Australia with the «Sydney Kings», in Japan with «Levanga Hokkaido», in Israel with «Hapoel Gilboa Galil» and in Turkey at «Galatasaray». Greg is the NBA Development League champion. American forward Jonathan Motley previously played in the NBA with the «Dallas Mavericks» and Los Angeles «Clippers», as well as their farm teams from the NBA Development League «Texas Legends» and «Agua Caliente Clippers», and played last season for the Korean team «Incheon IT Land Elephants». American defender Darius Thompson played Dutch “ZZ Leiden” and Italian “Brindisi” before LOKO. In addition, “Lokomotiv-Kuban” announced young Russian players who were previously noted in the Kuban team — Sergey Dolinin, Zakhar Vedischev, and Alexander Shcherbene, as well as Kirill Parilov. In addition, it is worth noting the American guard Quinn Cook, a two-time NBA champion, for whom this is the first basketball experience outside the United States. Before that he was on the roster he was with the «Dallas Mavericks», New Orleans «Pelicans», «Golden State Warriors», Los Angeles «Lakers» and Cleveland «Cavaliers» in the NBA and the «Canton Charge» and Santa Cruz «Warriors» in the NBA Development League. But Quinn did not stay in «Lokomotiv-Kuban», having spent only a month as part of the Kuban team, leaving it on January 1, 2022. Also, perhaps the most “painful” acquisition to Lokomotiv-Kuban for us was the American Jaylen Barford, who spent half of this season with «Astana».

Head coach: Evgeniy Pashutin has remained head of the coaching staff of the Kuban team since last season, but in December the Russian specialist and the Kuban team parted ways. Serbian specialist Branko Maksimovic became the new head coach of Lokomotiv-Kuban. Branko has been an assistant to Evgeny Pashutin in the coaching staff of LOKO since February 2021. He began his coaching career in his homeland in Serbia in the system of «Rodnichki Belgrade», a youth team. Then the assistant om coach in the Serbian teams «Crvena Zvezda», «NIS Vojvodina», «Rodnichki Belgrade», «Hemofarm» and «Rodnichki Kragujevac», and was also involved in the coaching staff of the youth teams of Serbia U-19 and U-20. His first experience as a head coach was in the Slovak team «Banik Gandlova», and then another team from Slovakia, «Inter Bratislava». After, and before Loko, there were posts of the head coach in the Serbian “FMP”, “Mladost Admiral” and “Vrsac”, as well as “Gandlova” from Slovakia.

Rival leaders: At the moment, the main leader of the Krasnodar team is American Eric McCollum. Also, the leaders include the Americans Jonathan Motley and Darius Thompson. It is also worth noting the Americans Stanton Kidd and Alan Willms, and although Alan played only three matches in the VTB League, he entered the court in the last game of the Kubans. Of the Russian players, Andrey Martyuk is the best at the moment, and Vladislav Yemchenko can also be singled out, who entered the court in all the games of the Lokomotiv Kuban team within the framework of the VTB United League.

Standings: “Lokomotiv-Kuban” started the season with a defeat from UNICS and not an easy victory over “Tsmoki-Minsk”. Then there was a victory over «Avtodor», a major defeat from «Zenit», and victories over «Yenisei» and «Zielona Gora». Kuban did not resist in the match with CSKA, but snatched the victory from PARMA, and lost to «Nizhny Novgorod». And already in the new calendar year, they played only one match against «Kalev», in which they won a landslide victory. As a result, they occupy the sixth line in the standings. «Astana» is now on the tenth line in the table.

History of the games: in the framework of the VTB United League, the Kazakh team and the Kuban team met 13 times. «Astana» has only four wins in this confrontation.

Interesting Facts:

• Former «Astana» player Jaylen Barford is likely to make his debut for the Krasnodar team in this match
• Another ex-player of «Astana», Serb Ivan Paunic, may return to the court in Nur-Sultan.
• In the last two seasons, «Astana» did not yield to «Loko» at home.

The match will take place in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Saryarka cycle track on Tuesday, February 15, starting at 19:00 capital time. An online broadcast of the game will be available on the main page of our website.

The entrance to the arena will be carried out only through the Northern entrance (from the side of Orynbor street, opposite the gas station), according to the scheme:



Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule, and match results are published in the Tournaments section.

The first home game of «Astana» in the new year in the VTB United League has become a great treat for the fans of the capital's team. Our guys defeated «Loko Krasnodar» and snatched victory in the thriller ending.

The incredible performance of Anthony Hickey certainly deserves most of the praise in this game and of course our fans who missed the matches of their favorite team. After all, the last home game took place more than two months ago. «Lokomotiv Kuban» came to Nur-Sultan as a clear favorite, the bookmakers gave almost 5 odds for Astana to win, and Jaylen Barford also made his debut for the Krasnodar club in this game. But «Astana» proved that the bookmakers are not always right, and Anthony Hickey proved that Jaylen was not the main star of the Kazakh team.



«Astana» started quite confidently in this game, and the score in the match was opened by our cap — Rustam Murzagaliev — plus two. In the meantime, the guests could not get to our basket for a very long time and spent almost the first three minutes of the match without scoring points. In addition to Murzagaliyev, Anthony Hickey and Skylar Spencer scored points in our roster at the beginning of the game. Then Krasnodar was the first to realize a long-range attempt but immediately received two more points from Hickey in response. And yet, the middle of the first quarter remained with the Loko basketball players, who not only caught up but overtook the hosts. The next few game minutes were held in a tug-of-war format, the teams changed each other a couple of times as leaders. In our line-up during this period, Anthony Hickey scored six more points and Skylar Spencer recorded a couple more. The Kuban team managed to get ahead by a couple of effective attacks at the end of the first quarter, but points from Maxim Marchuk and Anthony Hickey did not allow the opponents to go far – 20:25. At the beginning of the second quarter, Antonio Campbell finally opened the scoring with long-range hits in this game for our team, while scoring two threes in a row, and again «Astana» took the lead. But the guests brought their attacks to the result and seized the lead once again. Skylar Spencer converted one free throw, followed by Anthony Hickey's three-pointer, and immediately equalized from the free-throw line. It was not possible to immediately take the lead, but Hickey again equalized the score. A little later, Maxim Marchuk brought our team forward with a three-pointer, and Oleg Balashov and Anthony Hickey supported the capital team's breakthrough. The difference in the score reached seven points and the opponents had to take a time-out, which paid off and in a minute and a half, the balance returned to the game. More than two minutes at the end of the first half, the teams could not score points, but Skylar Spencer broke this pause and again brought the hosts ahead. Nevertheless, the end of the second quarter remained with our rivals, who realized a couple of unanswered attacks — 44:46. Relative evenness in the score displayed approximately equal numbers in the statistics, although the overall effectiveness of the statistical indicators was on the side of the guests. But after two quarters, “our main trump card” – Anthony Hickey achieved to record numbers – 22 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists.



At the start of the third period, Loko's players immediately organized an accurate long-range shooting, but immediately received an equivalent response from Anthony Hickey. In such an equal game, each realized attack was as worth as gold, but for the next couple of minutes, the score on the scoreboard was not updated again. In the middle of the third period, Anthony Hickey was accurate from the paint, but a three-point response from his opponents was not long in coming. Mark Tikhonenko and his first three-pointer in the game came to the rescue, and Skylar Spencer narrowed the Kazakh gap down to one point. A minute later, Anthony Hickey and Antonio Campbell recorded one accurate long-range attempt each. Now «Astana» was leading by five points, and the Lokomotiv coaching staff was again forced to take a timeout. True, this time he did not immediately bring tangible results, and Anthony Hickey earned another five points. But more, before the final period, our players did not manage to score effective points, and the guests, although they did not make up for the lost time, lost only a couple of points before the final quarter — 66:64. A tough confrontation was expected in the fourth quarter, and the game didn't disappoint fans of dramatic endings. For starters, «Lokomotiv Kuban» quickly took the lead and our coaching staff had to take a timeout. Until the middle of the fourth quarter, the teams went neck to neck. During this time, Mark Tikhonenko brought “Astana” forward with a three-pointer, Anthony Hickey again led our team with another three-point shot, Antonio Campbell equalized the score, and after two points from Hickey and a dunk from Spencer, “Astana” again seized the initiative. Exactly before the equator of the quarter, Mark Tikhonenko made another long-range shot, and five minutes before the end we were in the lead by two points. The situation on the court escalated more and more, and the teams had already managed to exchange technical fouls earlier, and in the remaining time, the game acquired a tactical character. Guests leveled the score, but Antonio Campbell followed up with a very important three. The atmosphere was tense to the limit, which affected the players who made mistakes quite often. The teams managed to exchange only a couple of productive attacks from an average distance, while “Astana” continued to lead by three points when less than a minute remained before the end of the match. «Lokomotiv» made a couple of chaotic throws that did not bring results, and eighteen seconds before the final buzzer Skylar Spencer earned an unsportsmanlike foul, which increased our chances of winning at times. But everything didn't go according to plan. Skylar failed to realize a single attempt from the penalty line, and with the further withdrawal of the ball from behind the sideline, our players made a loss. The opponents had a real chance to move the game to overtime, they had to score three points and they earned three penalties in six seconds.  If they had implemented them all, it would have most likely been overtime. But after the first miss, all Kazakhstani fans felt relieved. The second free throw also missed the target, and the third one was precise, but an important rebound was made by Skylar Spencer, who was immediately fouled. There were a couple of seconds left to play with a three-point difference, and to remove any remaining questions, Skylar needed to score at least one free throw in two attempts. He missed the first but was accurate in the second attempt, and «Astana» eventually won with a score of 87:83.
 
Most scoring:

• «Astana» — today's performance by Anthony Hickey has already entered the history of the VTB United League. Hickey became the seventh player in the entire history of the league to score a triple-double, and his triple-double was mostly effective. Anthony scored 43 points, which is the second result in the league in points scored per game, if you count matches without overtime, this is the first result in history. Anthony Hickey — 43 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block shot. In addition, Anthony Hickey currently led the ratings in points per game and efficiency, and also remained the leader in assists and steals. Skylar Spencer did a great job with free throws today — two out of ten, but this is compensated by his excellent game — double-double — 12 points, 15 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block shot, and most importantly — the important free throw was accurate. It is worth noting that Skylar Spencer is currently the league leader in average rebounds and blocks per match. Antonio Campbell was very active from behind the arc but converted only 33% of his attempts, but he got into the most important moments of the match, scoring 14 points, 3 rebounds. Mark Tikhonenko also shot only from a distance today and was able to realize half of his attempts — 3, earning 9 points in the end.
• Lokomotiv Kuban — Eric McCollum became the most productive among the guests today — 17 points, while Alan Williams, Darius Thompson, and Jaylen Barford scored 11 points each.

 
Head coach of «Astana» — Darko Russo:
«I'm happy for our team because we had a lot of matches that we lost in the end. Today we controlled most of the game except for the end of the first half when «Loko» managed to go for a long break with a 2-point advantage. But after that, we gained our rhythm and played pretty well. Once again, I congratulate our team on the victory.»

Head coach of «Lokomotiv Kuban» — Branko Maksimovic:
«Today the opponent has surpassed us in details. We had a few long, unfortunate stretches during the game. Failed to maintain the required level of concentration and attention to detail throughout the entire 40 minutes.»

Next match: Our guys have practically no time for celebrating. They will only have one day to catch their breath before the next game. As early as Thursday, February 17, Kazan UNICS will pay a return visit to the yellow-turquoise team, beginning at 19:30 capital time, tickets are also on sale at Ticketon.kz.

Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule, and match results are published in the Tournaments section.