The Presidential Basketball Club “Astana” went to Lithuania for pre-season training camps, within which the capital's team will hold a number of friendly games.
The first opponent to check the new squad of “Astana” was the Lithuanian basketball team from the city of Prenai, which this season changed its title sponsor, and at the same time took the new name “CBet”. Our rivals play in the Lithuanian basketball league and they ended the season at the quarter-final stage. “Astana” has previously played with this Lithuanian team, but all the games were held in the framework of friendly games. In the preseason 2016/2017 then under the name “Vytautas” the team defeated “Astana” with a score of 75:98, and a year later in the preseason 2017/2018 “Astana” won 77:68.
In the recent game, the leader had changed more than once. “Astana”, having won in the first quarter, lost in the second quarter, but still retained leadership after the first half. But in the third quarter, the hosts were able to speed up and by the end of three quarters they were able to go ahead of “Astana” by 2 points. In the final quarter, there was a tough fight, the winner of which was the Kazakh basketball players, who marked the first victory of the season with a score of 74:75 (22:29, 21:17, 16:11, 15:18).
Dusan Ristic scored a powerful double-double (20 points and 10 rebounds), another rookie Malcolm Hill scored 18 points, 4 rebounds and 4 steals, and Kazakh guard Rustam Murzygaliev collected 11 points. Victory in the first “friendly” should set the tone for the performance of the capital team in further friendly matches.
Schedule and results of pre-season friendly matches of PBC Astana:
- September 7 — BC «CBet» - 74:75
- September 9 — BC «Khimki» - 88:81
- September 12 — BC «Neptunas» - 79:79
- September 14 — BC «Liepaja» - 73:107
- September 17 — BC «Lietuvos-Rytas» - 100:76
- September 19 — BC «Avtodor» - 106:83
- September 24 — BC «VEF» — 84:77
- September 28 — BC «Kuršiai»
