Lokomotiv-Kuban took revenge on the MBA – MK in Kuban

Diverse positive

The unconditional “excellent student” of the past week is basketball “Lokomotiv-Kuban”. From the camp of the club came only positive news, and very diverse. The main success of the week, of course, lies directly in the game: Loko defeated the Moscow MBA on the road. The Krasnodar team at the second stage of the VTB United League superbly “settled down” on the road. Earlier, the Red-Greens defeated the powerful Zenit and UNICS, but lost twice at home.

There was a principled game with the MBA. The impudent newcomer of the VTB United League has already managed to “print” Krasnodar twice. Vasily Karasev’s team won in the opening game of the tournament on the road, and then developed success at home. For a long time, Muscovites were higher than Loko in the standings, but now they are lagging behind.

It was possible to get even in full – a rout! The final score is 89:60 (29:18, 12:24, 29:5, 19:13) in favor of Lokomotiv. At the same time, the game cannot be called completely passable. The first half turned out to be combat, or rather undulating. The impactful first quarter of the “red-greens” was replaced by a disastrous second. Krasnodar squandered a double-digit advantage and lost one point by the big break. However, then everything went like clockwork. The third quarter turned out to be completely humiliating for the hosts: a total defeat – 29 : 5. And the last period turned out to be a formality.

The head coach of the MBA, Vasily Karasev, admitted that Loko became a completely different team than in the first part of the season.

– At first we acted well, but then the strength seemed to run out and the team just got up. Now we are in a hole from which we need to get out, – said the expert.

Head coach of Lokomotiv-Kuban Alexander Sekulich said the following:

– We started the first quarter well, did everything we agreed on before the game, but allowed the opponent to bounce back in the second ten minutes. In the locker room, I again asked the guys to be more focused, we started to move the ball well, played well in defense.

The laurels of the best scorer of the meeting were once again taken by the American Legionnaire “Loco” Jaylen Burford, who scored 22 points. He made four long-range shots out of five. Trinidadian Devon Acoon-Purcell was named Team of the Week with 18 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Andrey Martyuk set a career record for blocked shots. He used the “fly swatter” five times, stopping the ball flying into the ring.

Then Martyuk went to the location of the Russian national team along with four teammates: Vladislav Yemchenko, Alexander Shcherbenev, Zakharov Vedischev and Anton Kvitkovskikh. The plans of the Russian team under the leadership of the Serbian specialist Zoran Lukic were to play two matches in the coach’s homeland, one of them took place on February 21, and the second is to be played on February 23. True, Zakhar Vedischev did not get into the final application for these games.

In addition, the All-Star Game was held in the VTB United League. The holiday weekend took place on February 17-19. The main game took place on Sunday. Two Loko basketball players played in it: Andrey Martyuk and Jaylen Barford. They played for the New School, assembled from the strongest players in the tournament under the age of thirty. She was opposed by the Old School, where there were basketball players older than that age. Both representatives of Loko turned out to be the most productive in their team. Martyuk – so in general in the match! He scored 34 points (also made ten rebounds and four steals), Burford – seventeen. But their team failed to win, the “old school” celebrated success – 148 : 140. The title of the most valuable player went to Perm Senegalese Malik Dima. He also “shot” a lot – thirty points.

Before that, there was also a “Match of Friends”. The President of Lokomotiv-Kuban Andrey Vedishchev spoke in it. He played for the team of the president of the VTB United League, Sergei Kushchenko, who lost to the team of the general director of the league, Ilona Korstin. But Andrei Vladimirovich, together with his son Peter, were named the best in their team. And during the break of the All-Star Game, Andrey Vedischev was inducted into the VTB United League Hall of Fame for his special contribution to the development of the tournament.

Abroad as the key to success

Handball players of “Kuban” played with the most principled rival of recent years – “Zvezda” near Moscow. Here, too, a funny picture has formed, referring to the adventures of Loko, when away games against this particular opponent work out better. This season, the teams exchanged away victories. In the opening match of the championship back in September, Zvezda won in Krasnodar with a margin of five goals – 36:31. success, they could beat their rivals, if not by points scored, but by points lost (Zvezda has one more game played).

Alas, the game shattered expectations. The first half was better than the beginning of Kuban, but by the end of it the advantage of the guests appeared – 15: 13. After the break, Krasnodar made the last successful effort in the match, taking the lead by one ball, but then lost control of the game. The guests confidently won – 31: 24. Krasnodar scored only 48 percent of their shots, while Zvezda – 64 percent. In addition, the hosts lost the ball more often – thirteen times, and the rivals – nine.

– We kept in mind the difference in the score, so we left the main team until the end of the match and did not let those who would not be bothered by practice play, – said the head coach of Zvezda Alexei Gumyanov. – It is possible that such a situation will arise that the goals scored and conceded will still have to be counted.

Thanks for the fans. We felt their support,” said Kuban coach Denis Saifulin, “but we could not turn the tide of the game. With this implementation and the number of losses, it’s hard to win against a good team. Zvezda often ran into the lead and scored many easy goals. A number of our players were ill before the game, but let me repeat, first of all, the implementation failed.

Zvezda increased its lead in the fight for fifth place.

Fiasco with an outsider and a fight with a leader

For the male SKIF, the week was still the same. The team made two polar trips, both by destination and by the status of the opponent. On the one hand, the outsider of the Superleague – “Skif” – in distant Omsk. On the other hand, the second team of the tournament is the nearby Stavropol Viktor.

In Omsk, the first half was a failure. The team from Krasnodar lost outright to their “namesake” – 8:14. The head coach of the Kuban team, Dmitry Karlov, complained about the poor implementation, his wards did not use eight “lethal” moments.

It was not possible to clean up the accumulated errors of the first half. Practically according to all statistical indicators, the Krasnodar team, although not by much, were better than the opponent. Alas, this was not enough. Summed up and the removal of Ruslan Dashko in the second half. Score 24 : 23 – Omsk celebrated the second victory of the season, but remained in last place.

SKIF fan support also went to Budennovsk, where the Krasnodar team was hosted by Viktor. It was a shameful defeat. Managed to fight the favorite. The first half hinted at problems for Viktor. SKIF’s goalkeeper Vadim Kondratenko played successfully, and the guests broke away by four goals – 10 : 6. But the end of the half was a failure. Alexander Grebenkin from Stavropol scored five of his eight goals in this period, and the guests took the lead by the break with a score of 15:13.

Then SKIF did not let the opponent go far, but the gap remained in two or three goals. Score 30: 27 – “Viktor” brought the matter to victory.

“I think the audience liked the game. She was equal. Thanks also to our fans: they were heard! Dmitry Karlov shared his emotions. We made a couple of mistakes. But in general, there are no complaints about the team. Viktor has almost two teams of equal players. It’s hard for us, when there are fewer substitutions, to maintain the pace of the whole match. Tired at the end, besides, some of the guys were sick. Today, everyone who could “hold a weapon” fought with us.

Nizhny Novgorod stumbling block

Nizhny Novgorod Sparta has become an evil genius for Dynamo volleyball players. For the second time in the season, the Volga team takes the most important points from Krasnodar, while remaining lower in the standings. Earlier in Krasnodar, the teams “hacked to death” before the tie-break. Now there were four parties – 3 : 1 (14 : 25, 25 : 20, 25 : 23, 25 : 19). This is especially offensive after the triumphant first game.

In Krasnodar, Valeria Shevchuk, who scored eighteen points, pulled the entire load in the attack. Natalya Seliverstova scored 24 points for Sparta, and Angelina Emelina scored seventeen more.

– Embarrassing defeat. The result of the match reflects a bad game on our part,” Dynamo head coach Pavel Zabuslaev admitted the loss. – Apparently, because of the excitement, the hosts started making mistakes. We won the first game due to the block, we were able to score important goals. Then the opponent rebuilt, started attacking in other directions, and we couldn’t oppose anything on defense.

Krasnodar, fighting for the playoffs, retained eighth place and a four-point lead over Minskka. But they were overtaken by the Krasnoyarsk “Yenisei”, lagging behind only in additional indicators. And ahead, on February 26, is a difficult match with the national champion – Lokomotiv from Kaliningrad.