By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Thanks to its efficiency during the last stretch of the game, Lokomotiv Kuban improved its record to 12 – 2 while Nizhny Novgorod fell to 4 – 10. What is more, the losing side is now 10th in the standings, after Avtodor Saratov’s victory over 88 – 81 victory over Tsmoki Minsk on Thursday.
Kevin Jones paced the winners by dropping a 20 points game-high and grabbing 6 rebounds, while Ian Vougioukas, Matt Janning and Dmitry Khvostov added 12 points apiece. Kenneth Boynton (17 points, 4 assists), DeAndre Kane (13 points) and Petr Gubanov (12 points, 7 rebouns) stood out for Nizhny.
Loko got initially stunned by Nizhny’s powerful offensive game falling behind 26 – 18 at the first quarter and 39 – 47 at halftime. Yet they reacted in the third period, slowly building up their efforts to lash out for a strong 12 – 0 run that transformed the 57 -62 into 69 – 62, three minutes in the fourth quarter.
Coach Obradovic’s players remained at a distance until the end, since their guests never managed to recover.