The day before the match, «Lokomotiv-Kuban» (7-6) officially ended a contract with a guard Stanton Kidd. «Astana» (2-11) arrived in Krasnodar with a series of 5 defeats in a row and without two foreign players — Skylar Spencer and Antonio Campbell.
The start of the game was controlled entirely by «Loko»: Vladislav Yemchenko scored 8 points, and his team made a breakthrough 13:0. «Astana» made its first effective attack 4 minutes after the match's start, but the Kuban team's defense worked perfectly that evening. During the first quarter, «Lokomotiv-Kuban» took a lead of 24 points — 35:11. By this time, ten players from the Krasnodar team were on the floor, nine of whom had already scored points. «Astana» tried to answer, but «Loko» increased its advantage with incredible speed. The hosts created the maximum advantage in the middle of the second 10-minute period — «+36».
However, towards the end of the quarter, «Astana» managed to organize a mini-spurt thanks to shots from Maksim Marchuk and Vadim Shcherbak. As a result, the teams went to the big break with a difference of 34 points — 63:29.
But in the second half, «Astana» failed to turn the tide of events. «Loko» continued to play excellent defense, and thanks to steals, they scored easy points in fast breaks. By the final buzzer, the Kuban team scored their most significant victory and set a season record for points scored in one match — 109:57.
Acting head coach of «Astana» - Dejan Parezanin:
«Now we are in a challenging situation; the foreign players have left, we play only with our local players. I congratulate «Loko» on the victory; they played well. Unfortunately, we missed too much in the first half. The defense failed, but the opponent also attacked with a very high percentage, despite resistance during the throws».
What's next: April 3 at home with «Nizhny Novgorod».
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule, and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
