Lokomotiv ends losing streak at Limoges

Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar remained alive in the fight for the Top 16 with a dominant 77-92 victory at Limoges CSP under the helm of interim coach Bogdan Karaicic. Johnny O’Bryant led the way for Lokomotiv with 24 points while Will Cummings added 21 points in helping the team improve to 3-5 in Group B and snapping a four-game losing streak. Mindaugas Kuzminskas scored 13 points, Mantas Kalnietis had 12 and Sam Dekker finished with 10 points in the road win. Nicolas Lang tallied 17 points to pace Limoges, which dropped to 2-6, but was not eliminated from the race for the Top 16. Brian Conklin scored 15 points, Ovidijus Varanauskas had 11 points and 6 assists and Anthony Brown chipped in 10 points in defeat.

Cummings got the visitors on the board first and O’Bryant and Dekker both scored 4 points as Lokomotiv opened a 9-12 advantage - with Varanauskas hitting 5 points for the hosts. Lokomotiv pulled away with a 0-14 run as O’Bryant and Kuzminskas both tallied 5 points for a 9-26 lead. Jerry Boutsiele snapped the 4-minute scoreless drought, but Kuzminskas was on target again from long range and the lead swelled to 11-31. Lang’s triple made it 14-31 after 10 minutes. Dmitry Kulagin opened the second quarter with two threes in pushing the advantage to 14-37. Limoges started to string together baskets and a couple of defensive stops with Brown hitting a three-pointer and throwing down a dunk and Hugo Invernizzi scoring 4 points in a 13-3 surge to pull within 29-42. Lokomotiv found its rhythm again and reeled off a 3-11 run with O’Bryant and Cummings draining threes for a 32-53 lead at the break. Conklin converted a three-point play and Brown knocked down a triple as the hosts pulled within 40-55 early in the second half. Kalnietis had an and-one and O’Bryant drained a three-ball in pushing the gap to 42-63. Three Cummings baskets increased the advantage to 51-73 - with the score 53-73 after 30 minutes. A Dekker three and 2 Cummings free throws had the margin at 54-78 and all seemed finished early in the fourth quarter. Limoges showed some pride with Lang scoring 7 points in a 20-5 run to cut it to 74-83 with 2 minutes to play. O’Bryant punched back with 5 straight points to end all doubts.

Limoges limited

The French side was very limited coming into the game, facing the Russia powerhouse without its top two scorers Semaj Christon and Marcus Gyniard as well as Vincent Sanford while new addition Paul Stoll only just arrived at the club.

Lokomotiv still undefeated against Limoges

Lokomotiv improved to 6-0 all-time in the EuroCup against Limoges, sweeping the regular season series against the French side for the third straight season.

Telling numbers

Lokomotiv connected on 69.7 percent of its two-point shots and turned 9 offensive rebounds into 19 second-chance points - compared to 6 such points for Limoges.

Next games

Limoges will host its next game, welcoming Umana Reyer Venezia on Tuesday, December 10. Lokomotiv will also be at home for Round 9 against Partizan NIS Belgrade on Wednesday, December 11.