Lokomotiv places seventh after first win

Debutant U18 Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar used a big fourth quarter to pick up its first victory at the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament Kaunas by beating U18 DBA Copenhagen 94-84 to finish seventh at its first appearance in the competition. Daniil Sereda paced the winners with 20 points while Sergei Korniukhin and Grigorii Skrynnik both scored 13 points, Egor Sychkov had 11 points and 11 rebounds and Gleb Bednyakov added 11 points. Copenhagen failed to get a victory in its first ANGT despite Jonathan Klussmann getting 30 points and 6 assists. Gustav Knudsen chipped in 25 points and 9 rebounds.

Lokomotiv jumped ahead 9-4 only to see Knudsen knock down a pair of three-pointers as Copenhagen went on a 2-15 run to go up 11-19. Lokomotiv evened the game at 19-19, but Knudsen scored another three baskets and Copenhagen led 24-29 after 10 minutes. Korniukhin and Sychkov both hit three-pointers early in the second to put the Russian side ahead 32-31. There were four more lead changes in the quarter with Klussmann and Knudsen combining for 9 points and Skrynnik hitting 4 points at the other end before the score settled at 42-43 at the intermission. The first three scores of the second half were lead changes before Ilia Korneliuk’s basket made it 51-46. Andreas Mortensen and Klussmann countered with three-pointers to put Copenhagen ahead 55-57. Klussmann’s next three had the Danish side up 60-61, but Lokomotiv punched back with the next 7 points and led 69-67 after 30 minutes. After 7 ties and 14 lead changes in the first three quarters, Lokomotiv delivered the knockout blow early in the fourth quarter with a 12-0 run over 5 minutes to move ahead 84-69 and Copenhagen could not get closer than 9 points the rest of the way.