L’Hospitalet outlasts Lokomotiv in OT for first win

U18 Torrons Vicens L’Hospitalet picked up its first victory at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Kaunas by winning a shoot-out with U18 Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar 93-96 in overtime in Group A. Mauro Abad collected 24 points, 6 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 steals and Guillem Tallada scored 19 points with 5 three-pointers for L’Hospitalet, which finished with a 1-2 record and will play in the fifth-place game on Sunday. Isaac Mayo and Daniil Cherneha both added 13 points in the victory. Lokomotiv lost its third straight game in its debut tournament despite Egor Sychkov scoring 27 points with 10 rebounds and Gleb Bednyakov tallying 15 points. Lokomotiv will play in the seventh-place game.

L’Hospitalet scored the first seven points of the game only to see Lokomotiv go on a 9-2 run to even the game. The Spanish side answered with a 2-11 spurt to go up 11-20 to which Lokomotiv responded with a 16-3 surge to lead 27-23 and the Russian team was leading 32-28 after 10 minutes. L’Hospitalet started the second quarter strong and pulled within 35-34. Bednyakov picked up 4 points at the other end in a 10-2 rally in pushing Lokomotiv in front 45-36. And two three-pointers from Sychkov made it 55-41 for Lokomotiv, which went into the break leading 57-44. Cherneha tallied 6 points in a 2-9 start to the second half and L’Hospitalet still trailed 63-54 before going onto a 3-14 run to nose ahead 66-68. Lokomotiv fought back and was up 73-70 after 30 minutes. A four-point play from Sychkov helped Lokomotiv open the gap to 81-70 in the fourth quarter. L’Hospitalet got back into the game with a 3-13 run to make it 84-83. Sychkov hit two free throws with 21 seconds left but Tallada knocked down a triple with 10 seconds remaining to force overtime. In the extra session, Kirill Korobko drained a three-pointer as Lokomotiv went up 93-91. Tallada answered with a trey of his own and after Bednyakov committed an offensive foul with 5.6 seconds left Antoni Liria made two free throws with 4.6 seconds to play to decide the game.