The Presidential Basketball Club “Astana” held the first home game of the National League, which resulted in a victory over the guests from Kokshetau, “Sinegorye”.
The match began on equal terms and, although “Astana” was the favorite in the match, Emil Rajkovic’s wards could not immediately demonstrate their status. Our opponent had a good mood for the game, and they did not want to miss the opportunity to impose their pace at the start of the game. “Sinegorye” failed to lead the game, but were able to stop the capital players. As a result, “Astana” after 10 minutes won 6 points. In the second quarter, the guests from Kokshetau began quickly reducing the gap and even pulled away, but they failed to preserve their lead. “Astana” again shot ahead, but not by a large margin. “Sinegorye” again managed to come forward, but our basketball players still left for a big break as the leaders — 36:34.
Such a way of things clearly did not suit Emil Rajkovic, nor anyone else in the coaching staff of “Astana”, and during the break, adjustments were made to the team’s game. In the third quarter, our team looked better than their opponents and gradually increased their lead. Our guests tried to keep “Astana” and showed quite a good game, but they failed to block our players and before the fourth quarter the difference was already 10 points. The intrigue in the match was still alive, but “Astana” broke the resistance of the rivals and after 5 minutes of the final period quarter, the capital team's advantage had doubled. Our basketball players confidently completed the match, having won a major victory — 81:55 (19:13, 17:21, 19:11, 26:10).
“Sinegorye” started the season with a defeat from our team, but resisted well for three quarters. “Astana” has gained a landslide victory and continues to lead the National League standings with a 100% result.
Most effective: Jeremiah Hill scored the most points for “Astana” — 15, also on his account 6 rebounds and 3 assists. Dusan Ristic had 13 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists, and Maxim Marchuk scored 10 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 steals. In “Sinegorye” the most effective player was center Stanislav Zavadsky — 10 points, 7 rebounds and 2 block shots, but the highest number of points for the game was in the asset of Roman Lagutin — 17.
Next match: tomorrow, October 25, in the city of Nur-Sultan, a second game will be held between «Astana» and «Sinegorye».
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, the schedule and match results are published in the Tournaments section.
We remind you that tickets for the next home matches in the VTB United League on November 4 against St. Petersburg Zenit and November 9 against the Belarusian «Tsmoki» Minsk are on sale now.
 «Samruk-Kazyna» National Welfare Fund |
 Uniform operator «Tourism Industry and Sports Support Fund» |
