This weekend, on December 23, «Astana» basketball club will hold its sixth home game in the framework of the VTB United League season 2018/2019. «Avtodor» from Saratov will be the next rival of Astana team.
«Avtodor» — is a Russian professional men's basketball club from the city of Saratov, founded in 1960.
Achievements:
Chronicle of past games: «Avtodor» basketball club has participated in the VTB United League since 2014. Before joining VTB, the Saratov team successfully performed in the Russian Super League, where they became multiple prize-winners and champions of the tournament. As for the personal games “Astana” — “Avtodor”, the teams met 8 times, 4 of which were in favor of the Kazakhstan team. Last season, the matches against Saratov were extremely difficult. Play-off game in Saratov became a thriller; the teams played 2 overtimes, but luck was still on the side of «Avtodor» (92:86). In the home game of «Astana», the Saratov players also won the Astana team and entered the playoffs.
The current situation: Saratov team is led by Serey Mokin this season, but after three consecutive defeats, he decided to resign from the post of Avtodor's head coach. In November, a Serbian specialist Dušan Alimpijević took a vacant position.
American players are incontestable leaders of the team, as well as the club's rookie Serbian guard Boris Savovich.
Standings: Avtodor Basketball Club is on the 7th place, with the result of 4 wins, 5 defeats. The capital club takes a comfortable 4th position with the result of 6 wins in 9 matches.
Commentary of BC «Astana» head coach Emil Raikovich: «Avtodor is a team with very talented players who play a lot of pick-and-roll and isolation. They have a new coach and a new player Boris Savovich, who came from the Polish team «Zielona Góra». As it can be judged by their recent results, they are now in a good shape. The upcoming match will require us to have an equally good game in defense and offense throughout the 40 minutes in order to win this important game before Christmas in the VTB League.»
The match will take place on December 23 at the arena of the Saryarka Cycle Track, starting at 3:00 pm Astana time. Online ticket sales on Ticketon.kz. Live broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the Match Center section and on the QazSport channel.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, the schedule and results of the matches are published in the Tournaments section.
Kazakhstan «Astana» won at home Russian «Avtodor» in overtime with a score of 100: 83 (14:20, 20:25, 22:17, 22:16, 22: 5).
The home team started actively and led the game for some time, but then Tre Golden made a 7-point run, which resulted in a score of 13: 0 — after which «Astana» was in the position of catching up. However, «Avtodor» kept going and increased the pressure — the difference became double-digit and continued to grow. But it was too early to relax for the guests. After a long break, the hosts used their secret weapon: accurate three-pointers performed by Michael Jenkins, Kenneth Horton, and Anthony Clemmons allowed «Astana» to win the third quarter and reduce the gap to an acceptable 6 points — 56:62 before the final 10-minute.
Nevertheless, the main event was still ahead. Having turned on the defense for maximum speed, the hosts seized the initiative and were already leading at the end of the quarter 74:70. However, David Kravish said his word, and the American center dominated in the paint, gaining 8 points in three minutes, and allowed «Avtodor» to continue the game in overtime. However, this turned out to be the last burst of activity of Saratov players: in the additional 5-minute, «Astana» did not leave any chances to the guests, winning it with the score of 22: 5 and scoring their second “hundred” of the season. Having won the seventh match, «Astana» caught up in the number of victories with the third-ranked UNICS.
The hero of the match is Anthony Clemmons. Although Jeffrey Grossell can claim the laurels of the match, Clemmons not only actively scored points, but also involved his teammates (9 assists), and also started a decisive run in overtime.
The number 7 — it was exactly the number of victories that «Astana» had at the end of the whole last season. This season, Kazakhstanis have achieved this result in December.
The top scoreres:
«Astana» head coach Emil Raykovich:
- First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to both teams, because the game was tense and ended in overtime. We won primarily because our team showed the character of fighters. We did not succeed at the beginning of the game, we tried to find our pace all the time, and in the end, we succeeded. This victory was very important for us before the New Year holidays have started; we leave for a break in a good mood.
«Avtodor» head coach Dushan Alimpievich:
- First of all, I want to congratulate “Astana” and their coach. This season, the team shows a truly high-quality basketball. I believe that this is a big victory for them. We had a very bad second half of the game, which cannot be compared with the first one. In the two quarters, we had a good defense, but we need to analyze and see what happened to us after a long break.
“Astana” will hold their next game after the New Year holidays on January 6. The capital basketball players will be visiting Nizhny Novgorod, where they will meet with the basketball club of the same name as a part of the regular season VTB United League championship.
Detailed information about tournaments, tournament tables, the schedule and match results are published in the Tournaments section.
