Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar crushed Galatasaray Medical Park 91-66 on Wednesday to take over first place in Group E with a perfect 3-0 record. Galatasaray dropped to 2-1 and sits in second place. Lokomotiv raced to a 42-28 lead early in the second quarter by hitting 3 triples during a 15-2 run, and never looked back. The margin reached 20 points midway through the third quarter and the win was all but guaranteed. Jimmy Baron scored game-high 23 points on 5-for-10 three-point shooting, while Nick Calathes had 20 points, 10 assists and 6 rebounds. Simas Jasaitis netted 16 and Derrick Brown chipped in with 12 in the victory. Jamont Gordon scored 12 for Galatasaray, Milan Macvan finished with 11, and Cenk Akyol with 10 points in defeat.
Calathes got Lokomotiv going with a layup, and after Boniface NDONG responded with a jumper, the hosts went on a 10-0 run capped with back-to-back threes from Jasaitis and Calathes. After Baron’s triple, the lead reached 15-4, but David Hawkins answered with a shot from downtown of his own to spark a 2-11 Galatasaray spurt. Cenk Akyol also hit a triple during that run and Hawkins added a dunk to bring the visitors within one possession. Calathes scored a layup for 21-17 and ended the scoring in the first quarter. Hawkins hit a jump shot to open the second quarter and cut the deficit to 2 points. Baron hit another three for 24-19, but Akyol answered right back with a triple and Gordon scored a layup to tie the game. It did not take long for Lokomotiv to regain control. Jasaitis hit a three-pointer and Baron added a layup to start a big 15-2 run that was highlighted with a pair of triples from Andrey Zubkov. The third triple in the game from Baron made it 42-28. Macvan was the only Galatasaray player to score during that span, and he followed up on a three-pointer from Jaka Lakovic with a layup-plus-foul to cut the deficit to 8 points. Jasaitis and Calathes did not allow the margin to stay in the single digits, though, giving Lokomotiv 46-36 lead at the half.
Calathes scored a layup to start the third quarter too and Lokomotiv soon raced to an 18-point advantage with Jasaitis, Derrick Brown and Aleks Maric each scoring easy buckets. Macvan hit a couple of shots for the visitors, but Calathes sunk a triple and Baron hit a long jumper to make it 63-42. While Galatasaray did not manage to muster a field goal for four minutes, Maric scored inside and Brown stepped up on defense and scored two easy layups on the other end to open up a 26-point lead, 72-46. Gordon ended the visitors’ drought by scoring layups at the end of third and beginning of the fourth quarter before Furkan Aldemir and Erwin Dudley joined in trying to give life to Galatasaray. But Baron, Jasaitis and Calathes refused to let down making it a 26-point game again. Engin Atsur sparked a late 2-8 run before Baron beat the buzzer with his fifth triple for 91-66 and started the celebrations in Krasnodar Basket-hall.
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
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