Lokomotiv Kuban wins Eurocup

PBC Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar is the 2012/13 Eurocup champion! Lokomotiv conquered its first-ever continental trophy by downing Uxue Bilbao Basket from Spain with 64-75 in the Eurocup Final at the RTL Spiroudome in Charleroi, Belgium on Saturday.

Lokomotiv Kuban became the fourth Russian team to win the competition – after Dynamo Moscow (2006), Unics Kazan (2011) and BC Khimki Moscow Region (2012) – and earned the right to play in the prestigious Euroleague next season.

Richard Hendrix (204 cm, Alabama’08) led the way for Lokomotiv with 14 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 blocked shot. Aleks Maric had a double-double of 12 points and 10 rebounds and Nick Calathes had 10 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists in 37 minutes.

Bilbao was led with 16 points from Kostas Vasileiadis and 11 from Milan Rakovic, but suffered most from the 34% two-point shooting (15 for 44).

A three-pointer by Raul Lopez gave Bilbao a 17-16 lead after 10 minutes and Adrien Moerman soon boosted his team’s margin to 22-16. It didn’t last long, as a three-pointer by Nick Calathes sparked a 0-11 run in which Hendrix had 4 points to make Lokomotiv get a 30-38 margin at halftime. A jumper by Brown gave Lokomotiv its first double-digit lead, 31-42, midway through the third quarter and by the middle of the fourth, his team had doubled it by holding Bilbao scoreless for 4 minutes and getting a rainbow triple from Simas Jasaitis at 45-65. Bilbao fought back, but ran out of time, as Lokomotiv Kuban Krasnodar goes home to Russia with the 2013 Eurocup trophy!