«Astana» broke the vicious circle of a five defeat streak by beating Belarusian «Tsmoki-Minsk» on the road with the score of 80:70 (23:15, 21:19, 13:14, 23:22).
«Astana», thanks to the reliable protection and confident game of the team leaders Ousman Kruballi and Ian Miller won 10 points in the first half (44:34). Kazakhs have long held the advantage, but when «Tsmoki» allowed the opponent to score only 2 points three and a half minutes after the start of the fourth quarter, the fans got the second wind (55:60). The attack of Minsk warriors was forced by the Greek legions of yellow and blue. Leonidas Kaselakis cheered teammates by scoring out of the ring, and his companion Dimitrios Katsivelis soon gave a gorgeous pass to Kruballi, who could do nothing but score. «Astana» stopped the next attack of the Belarusians, and in the ensuing possession our American forward got offensive rebound, hit 2 foul points, and led the score to 70:59 in less than 3 minutes before the buzzer. By holding back the final assault of «dragons», «Astana» broke a series of 5 consecutive defeats.
The most productive:
«Tsmoki-Minsk»: Antonio Graves (18), George Gagich (17 + 9 rebounds), Dru Joyce (7 + 5 rebounds 8 assists).
«Astana»: Ousman Kruballi (23 + 10 rebounds), Ian Miller (16 + 5 assists), Leonidas Kaselakis (16).
Tsmoki-Minsk head coach Igor Grishchuk:
– Astana is very good on defence. We slept through the first 10 minutes, which I think is the main reason for the loss.
Astana head coach Ilias Papatheodorou:
– This was a very tough game because Tsmoki is a strong team. We wanted to be aggressive and I think we did that: we controlled the game from the start to the end.
Its next match Astana will hold on the road, the team will go to Saratov, where on February 25 it is going to meet with Avtodor in the championship of VTB United League.
 «Samruk-Kazyna» National Welfare Fund |
 Uniform operator «Tourism Industry and Sports Support Fund» |
