«Astana» Presidential Basketball Club updated the season record in the second match of the National League home series against guests from Aktobe.
After a landslide victory in the first match of the series, “Astana” was a favorite in the second one too. In this game, Isaiah Whitehead again joined the Astana squad, and Malcolm Hill was replaced by Jeremiah Hill.
For the first time in history, the Aktobe team took a lead in a match with «Astana», but the leadership of our guests did not last long. The capital team by the second minute of the match began to gradually go into the lead. But the main pressure on rivals in the first quarter went on in its halftime, which became the most productive in the first ten minutes of playing time. As a result, “Astana” had completed the first quarter with a substantial 18-point gap. The second period also went under the control of the hosts, for the first five minutes the difference in the score did not change much, but in the middle of the quarter “Astana” made another rapid attack, to which Aktobe players were not ready, and as a result, a difference in the score exceeded 20 points. The teams left for a long break with the score — 60:35.
The capital team did not need time to warm up in the game and took a powerful start in the third quarter. Our rivals clearly did not expect this and were completely discouraged. For almost 5 minutes not a single ball hit into the capital’s basket, while «Astana» attacked with enviable regularity and effectiveness. Not surprisingly, the gap between our guys quickly got to forty points. The second half of the third period also did not bring anything good to Aktobe squad, they scored only 5 points, but at the same time, they constantly missed the attacks of our team. 10 minutes before the end of the match, the Astana handicap was already quite large — 46 points, and nothing could prevent the victory of the capital's team. In the last quarter, our basketball players completely dominated on the court and exceeded the already devastating score further to the biggest victory this season, significantly breaking the hundred points mark at the same time — 116: 50 (37:19,
23:16, 26: 5, 30 :10).
In this match, our guests could not impose any struggle, losing 25 points in the first half, and 41 points in the second half. Thus, “Astana” won the biggest victory of the season, becoming the eighth in a row in eight matches held. “Aktobe” after two defeats in the capital remained on the fourth line of the standings.
Most productive:
- “Astana” — today 7 players of “Astana” scored 10 or more points. The most effective was Robert Pan — 18 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 block shots. Isaiah Whitehead made the highest number of assists — 12 points, 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 steals. Maxim Marchuk id distinguished for the highest number of steals — 12 points, 3 assists, 6 steals. The most effective in rebounds was Ruslan Aitkali — 13 points, 8 rebounds.
- “Aktobe” — in the camp of our rivals, Gleb Zhukov became the best — 13 points and 6 rebounds, as well as Ibrahim Konysov -14 points.
Next match: November 16, “Astana” will go to Saratov, where it will hold a match with the local “Avtodor” in the VTB United League, and the next National League games will be held in Nur-Sultan again
on November 19 and 20, “Barsy Atyrau” will arrive in the capital.
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, the schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
