Tsmoki-Minsk met Krasnodar Lokomotiv-Kuban in the VTB United League after two consecutive victories over Kazakhstan Astana. Certainly, the double success inspired our team, raised self-esteem, convinced that the task of fighting for a place in the playoffs is within the team's strength. And therefore, the dragons went out to the duel with the Lokomotiv with one desire — to win. Unfortunately, today is a defeat — 79:104 (17:24, 24:24, 22:30, 16:26).
Starting fives
Tsmoki-Minsk: Uladzislau Blizniuk, Daniil Barysevich, Daniil Kosko, Yauheni Beliankou, Vadim Stubeda
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Vladislav Emchenko, Zakhar Vedistchev, Stanislav Ilnitskiy, Greg Whittington, Andrey Martiuk
Foreword
It is curious that this match received the status of "ecological" as part of a large environmental efficiency program conducted by the VTB United League since 2017 with the support of SIBUR. The "Play and Share" educational campaign was held in the "Falcon Club" hall, and separate collection of plastic waste was organized throughout the arena as part of the "Basketbottle" branded campaign. By the way, all the clubs of the VTB United League compete in terms of environmental efficiency and earn credit points for their activity. And plastic bottles collected at matches are sent for recycling. One of the clearest and most important examples of the recycling of plastic is the ECOBOL Wilson basketballs, which are played in the league - their inner part is made from recycled plastic bottles.
Game scenario
Our rivals faced logistical problems while preparing for the match. The way from Krasnodar to Minsk was not easy: by train to Sochi, by plane to Moscow, and again by plane to the capital of Belarus. But it is not appropriate for professionals to refer to road difficulties. Rather, the acting head coach of Lokomotiv-Kuban, Branko Maksimovic, was more concerned about personnel problems. Recently, American center Alan Williams parted ways with the team, his compatriots Jonathan Motley and Stanton Kidd are still recovering from injuries, defender Jaylen Burford was not in the away roster.
Unfortunately, Tsmoki-Minsk also could not boast of the strongest squad. During the previous meeting in Nur-Sultan, Alexey Trostinetsky and Darol Hernandez-Zinenko received unpleasant injuries, and Rostislav Vergun had to declare for the match juniors Daniil Kosko and Alexei Navoychik from the farm club, as well as Benjamin-Pavel Dudu, who had not yet fully recovered after the surgery.
The debut of the meeting did not please the audience: the guests immediately gave a breakthrough 7:0 thanks to a well-aimed hit by Andriy Martyuk, Vladislav Yemchenko's free throws and Greg Whittington's three. However, not the best start did not really upset the dragons: in the 4th minute the score was already equal - 10:10. Daniil Borisevich, Vladislav Bliznyuk, Evgeny Belyankov, who played the role of team captain in the absence of Alexei Trostinetsky, and Andrei Stabrovsky, who went from the bench, did their best. It's a pity we couldn't keep balance till the end of the first quarter. Legionnaires “Lokomotiv-Kuban” Eric McCollum, Ivan Paunich and the same Greg Whittington joined the sniper duel to the fullest. But the episode at the end of playing time looked the most offensive. After the video review, the arbitrators determined that the guests had only 0.2 second left to enter the ball from behind the base line and attack. Unfortunately, our guys lost Andriy Martyuk, who managed to bring the ball into the basket — 17:24.
The second period was held in an equal fight. Although it developed in waves. First, Krasnodar rushed off to a 13-point lead (23:36) - it was especially difficult for the Minsk team to guard the tall Andrey Martyuk and Greg Whittington - each brought 13 points to the "railwaymen". However, in the second half of the ten-minute period, the conditions were already dictated by "Tsmoki-Minsk". Timofey Porolev showed a brilliant game in attack, scoring 8 points in a row. The rivals went to the break with seven points advantage , obtained in the first period - 41:48.
After the break, the dragons inadvertently fell into the same starting trap - they missed the enemy's breakthrough 2:10. Rostislav Vergun requested a timeout in order to figure out what went wrong. The adjustment was good: Tsmoki activated the center position in post, and Vadim Stubeda earned 6 points. Lokomotiv tried to transfer the sphere of rivalry to a duel of long-distance snipers - Zakhar Vedishev shot twice from behind the arc. However, Tsmoki-Minsk answered by threes from Andrey Stabrovsky and Evgeny Belyankov. Everything would be fine, but the hosts periodically missed the rivals’ «bigs» , and those due to more advantageous anthropometry punished our team with points from the paint.
Denouement
The teams entered the final quarter with a 15-point advantage of Lokomotiv-Kuban — 63:78. Our boys had a difficult task ahead of them. It became even more complicated when the recognized sniper Eric McCollum stepped out of the shadows. In addition, for some reason, the dragons felt extremely uncomfortable on the free-throw line - they converted only 9 out of 17. This circumstance unleashed the hands of the guests, who added even more rigidity to the defense - they were not afraid of personal fouls.
When the distance between the teams reached two tens of points, Rostislav Vergun gave VTB United League debutant Alexei Navoichik an opportunity to sniff the gunpowder of big battles. And he did not hesitate - he soon scored his the first points. The final segment of the meeting Tsmoki-Minsk ended with the most youngest squad, the average age of which is 19.6 years.
Scoring leaders
Tsmoki-Minsk: Andrei Stabrovsky - 17 + 5 REB + 3 AST + 2 STL, Evgeny Belyankov - 14 + 5 REB, Timofey Porolev - 13 + 1 REB, Vadzim Stubeda - 11 + 2 REB + 1 STL.
Lokomotiv-Kuban: Andrey Martiuk - 19 + 5 REB + 2 AST + 1 STL + 1 BLK, Greg Whittington - 18 + 9 REB, Zakhar Vedistchev - 15 + 2 REB + 2 AST + 2 STL, Errick McCollum - 13 + 2 REB + 3 AST, Alexander Shcherbenev - 12 + 5 AST + 2 STL.
Rostislav Vergun - Tsmoki-Minsk Head Coach:
Тoday we could not risk the health of leaders who had medical contraindications. On the other hand, there was a chance for some new players to show themselves. It seems to me that in the first half we showed a fairly high-quality game. This is the result of the last three matches. The experience that the guys have gained and the fact that they feel confident in their new roles probably gives results. We have a week to recover and prepare well for the game against "Avtodor". We will be in full force and in full combat readiness.
Next game
The next match of the VTB United League Tsmoki-Minsk will play next Sunday, March 27. At the home arena of the "Minsk-Arena" our basketball players will compete with the Saratov "Avtodor", the game starts at 16.00.