Loko rolls in Bilbao behind 14 threes

Group C champ Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar took another win to stay undefeated, this time at already-eliminated RETAbet Bilbao by 69-91. The hosts stood strong for most of three quarters, but when the Loko offense started flowing, there was nothing RETAbet could do. The win lifted Lokomotiv to a perfect 9-0, while RETAbet dropped to 2-7. Chris Babb led the winners with 21 points, Joe Ragland and Ryan Broekhoff had 17 apiece and Trevor Lacey scored 13. For RETAbet, only Dejan Todorovic shined with a career-high 21 points.

RETAbet started the last game in front of its fans with motivation and good percentages from the field, which sent the score to a 16-9, including 6 points by Todorovic. Loko struggled on offense, missing all of its two-point shots in the first quarter, but scored from behind the arc to trail 20-12. A 0-7 Loko run made it a two-point game, but Alex Mumbru broke the spell from the stripe with 2 free throws to make it 23-20 after 10 minutes. Trevor Lacey nailed a three to tie the game at 30-30, but Todorovic soon replied in the same manner to keep RETAbet ahead. The guests managed to keep slim margins from then on, as RETAbet started to struggle against the defensive wall of Loko. Mardy Collins nailed a jumper from the corner as the game reached the break with a 39-42 edge for the guests.

The hosts had a 7-0 start to the second halfas Denis Levshin made his debut in the 7DAYS EuroCup and scored his first points from the stripe. Mumbru ignited the stands with a three on the shot-clock buzzer, but Broekhoff had another of his good nights to almost single-handedly keep Loko in the game and even put it ahead. Both sides traded threes at this point with the score escalating to 57-64 after three quarters. The last quarter started with the first double-digit lead of the game when Babb nailed a three for the guests. RETAbet tried to stay in the game with Lucio Redivo hitting a big three from downtown, but on offense Loko was flowing. As time went by, the guests took absolute control of the game and RETAbet just showed isolated moments of inspiration as the team could not say goodbye to a EuroCup campaign on a high note in front of its fans.