Lokomotiv Kuban and UNICS are on an equal footing

Lokomotiv-Kuban started the final battle. Handball players played unsuccessfully in the first matches of the quarterfinals. The rugby players of “Kuban” still have a tour until the end of the championship and a chance for bronze medals. Details of the sports week – in the traditional review of “MK in the Kuban”.

It did not work to take Kazan with a swoop

On May 6, the final of the VTB United Basketball League started. After the triumph of Lokomotiv-Kuban in the CSKA series (we remind you that it ended in overtime of the seventh game), the opponent of Krasnodar was determined in an equally tense confrontation. The most difficult victory also in the seventh match was pulled out by UNICS Kazan, having beaten Zenit from St. Petersburg with a difference of one point, which resigned the champion’s powers.

The teams started the fight in the capital of Tatarstan, as UNICS was second in the regular season, Krasnodar was fifth.

The first game went to Lokomotiv with a fairly significant gap – 88:76 (22:23, 20:14, 21:22, 25:17). But a simple meeting, of course, did not work out. Both opponents have not yet recovered physically and mentally from the exhausting semi-finals.

“We played less badly than the opponent,” Lokomotiv defender Alexander Shcherbenev said after the match.

Everything was decided in the last quarter. A spurt – 10 : 0 – allowed the guests to feel comfortable – 81 : 67. The huge difference was in the efficiency of the Russian players. They scored more than forty points against Loko, that is, half of the team points. UNICS found only two “domestic” points.

Legionnaires still came to the fore in terms of performance. Jaylen Barford once again became the main scorer of Loko – seventeen points. Plus, he grabbed five rebounds. Devon Akun-Purcell scored twelve points, Chris Horton eleven, and led the team in rebounding with twelve.

– Of course, I’m happy with the result. It is always extremely important to start a series with a win, especially away,” said Alexander Sekulich, head coach of Lokomotiv-Kuban. — It was a very interesting game. Both teams started off tough, with concentration and attitude. I think the key was team defense. To win against a team like UNICS, you need to defend well. I hope we continue in the same spirit.

The second game turned out to be more intense. Krasnodar could make an even more weighty bid for final success by taking a 2-0 lead in a series that will last up to four wins. Alas, UNICS has made it even clearer that it won’t be easy.

The first quarter was left to the hosts. But the second one went completely according to Loko’s plan, and the Krasnodar team achieved a weight advantage of eight points – 46:38.

Then UNICS found itself – and the game leveled off. An average hit by Daryl Macon literally with a siren reduced the difference before the last quarter – 62: 58. Krasnodar was constantly in the lead in it, but the final minutes changed everything. With the score at 75:75, Akun-Purcell scored only one free kick with a minute to go. The hosts missed in the return attack, but took the rebound, provoked a foul – and Jalen Reynolds converted both free throws.

Loko had a timeout half a minute before the end. However, the attack failed: Vladislav Yemchenko’s long-range shot did not reach the goal. In the remaining seconds, thanks to free throws, UNICS further strengthened its advantage – 79:76 (24:19, 14:27, 20:16, 21:14).

At Loko, Akun-Purcell scored seventeen points, Chris Horton fourteen, Okaro White ten plus eight rebounds. Burford limited himself to only eight points. The hosts were the best Americans: Jalen Reynolds (nineteen points + five rebounds + seven steals) and Marcos Knight (seventeen).

– Congratulations to UNICS on the victory. We knew that we were playing against an excellent team headed by an authoritative coach,” said Lokomotiv head coach Alexander Sekulich. – We controlled the match and confidently led the score four minutes before the end. I don’t know what happened to us in these last moments. In any case, today we made too many losses: twenty-two is a terrible number. The opponents showed themselves well on the rebound, especially in the key moments of the match. Decisive was the rebound, which was taken by Vince Hunter under our shield.

On the eleventh and thirteenth of May, the teams will play in Krasnodar Basket Hall. The fifth match will be held in Kazan on the sixteenth of May. The remaining fights will take place, if necessary, on May 19 in Krasnodar and May 22 in Kazan.

Hope for foreign walls

Handball quarter-finals with the participation of Krasnodar clubs were held on the same day and in the same place. It was the sixth of May at the Olimp Sports Palace. Both couples were just opening their confrontations. The series here is unlike the basketball ones – only two matches each, home and away, the sum of which will determine the winner.

The handball players of Kuban and Togliatti Lada were the first to enter the court – the fifth and fourth teams of the regular season. They clashed in the last match of the regular season here, and then Volzhanka were stronger with a margin of one goal. After that, Kuban rested, but Lada held another home Final Four of the Russian Cup. There, Togliatti took second place, losing only to CSKA Moscow.

The game was similar to the last one, but only about fifty minutes. Krasnodar got off to a good start, leading with a score of 7:4. But gradually the hostess slowed down. The opponents finished the first half with a score of 13:13. The main troubles for the “Kuban” came in the last minutes. With the score 27:30, the “yellow-greens” conceded three unanswered goals, aggravating their position before the second game. Score 27 : 33 is a very noticeable lag.

Captain Yana Savinova scored eight goals for Kuban, Victoria Zhilinskaite scored the second with four goals. Seventy-three percent of Lada’s shots hit the target, while Kuban only had 62 percent.

The game was a failure for the goalkeepers of both teams. All three Kuban goalkeepers have entered the court, but the overall percentage of shots repulsed is extremely low: fifteen percent (six out of thirty-eight). The rivals are slightly higher: twenty-two percent. Valeria Kirdyasheva became the top scorer again for Lada with eight goals.

Also, seven removals from Krasnodar against four from rivals had a serious impact.

– An important victory, but we do not relax. Kuban always fights to the last. Today we will rejoice, and then we will start working,” said Lada’s mentor Ekaterina Marennikova.

– In the first half, we had more sunk than in the second. However, every shot on our goal is a goal, – complained the head coach of Kuban Denis Saifulin. – Our goalkeepers did not play in both halves. It’s hard to play without a goal. In the second half we made more losses than in the first. And there were more deletions. Some we agree with, some we don’t. That’s why the game is like that. Is it possible to play six balls? Everything happens in this life, so let’s hope.

The return game will be held on May 11 in Tolyatti.

The duel between SKIF and Viktor turned out to be more stubborn than the women’s one, although the difference in the regular season between them was more noticeable. Stavropol team finished second, Krasnodar — seventh. Both clubs, by the way, missed the “Final Four” of the Cup of Russia. Moreover, “Victor” was the current owner, SKIF – last year’s participant. The trophy, by the way, was returned to the Chekhov Bears.

The beginning of the confrontation gave hope to SKIF fans. The hosts made a breakthrough – 6 : 2, but gradually the advantage faded away. In the second half, the opponents alternately took the lead. In the last minutes, SKIF lost three goals – 20:23, but managed to get ahead – 24:23. “Viktor” equalized the score. Krasnodar failed to carry out a successful attack. “Viktor” in the last attack clearly played the ball, and Andrey Belyaev hit the top corner – 25:24.

Ex-player of “Victor” Ruslan Dashko and Tran Xuan Viet scored six times in SKIF.

– The match was very tense, it corresponded to the status of the playoffs, – said Dmitry Karlov, head coach of SKIF. “Unfortunately, we made fourteen losses, which is a lot. I think it’s all from the intensity of the struggle. The guys really wanted to score. We conceded by one goal, but before the return game, that it was a draw, that such a difference, in fact, does not mean anything. We still need to win. All the guys looked good in training. Everyone understood the situation and tuned in. And for the second game, I’m sure, there will also be a mood. For two or three days, we won’t change tactics, the pattern of the game, but we will try to polish the defense.

The return game will take place on the site of “Viktor” on the tenth of May.

Everything will be decided in the capital

The penultimate, sixth round took place in the women’s championship of Russia in rugby-7. It was received by Krasnoyarsk. As a result of the tournament, the struggle for third place became even more aggravated.

“Kuban” the last three rounds has consistently finished in third place. Now it has not been possible to repeat it. Maxim Amonov’s team successfully overcame the group stage, and then outplayed Vityaz Perm in the quarterfinals – 19: 5. But in the semifinals, the southerners lost to CSKA – 5: 32, and in the match for third place they lost to VVA-Podmoskovye – 7: 17.

Krasnodar’s main rival, Yenisei-STM from Krasnoyarsk, was able to take advantage of the home round factor and take second place.

Another victory in the tour was won by CSKA. Thus, the capital club for the round before the end issued the third championship title in a row. In the overall standings, CSKA has 120 points, VVA has one hundred and six, Kuban has ninety, Yenisei-STM has eighty-eight.

The final round will take place on May 26-27 in Moscow.