“Astana” won a difficult but spectacular victory over “Tsmoki-Minsk” on its court

10.11.2019, 10:00    Views: 380
Source: Press service
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«Astana» Presidential Basketball Club once again pleased their fans with a victory in an intriguing and unpredictable ending, this time in a home game against «Tsmoki-Minsk».

“Astana” were hospitable and allowed the guests to open a score in the match, but then our guys quickly and confidently took the initiative into their own hands. “Astana” had great first minutes of the game and it took them a little more than half a quarter to take their advantage for more than ten points. Nevertheless, the Belarusian “dragons” were not thrown out of their stride, they continued to compete. Although until the end of the first quarter the yellow-turquoise looked more confident, they failed to increase the gap, and after 10 minutes the scoreboard showed +11 in favor of “Astana”. In the second quarter, the difference in the score was around 10 points, and our guests, although they could not close the gap, but also did not allow our team to increase their lead. It was in this vein that the entire second quarter had passed. The last points in this quarter were scored by “Astana”, and the teams went for a long break with the score 51:38 in our favor.



The first minutes of the second half of the match brought the wards of Emil Rajkovic a good advantage and justified the title of favorites in this match. However, the Minskers proved that they arrived in Nur-Sutan only for victory and again imposed the struggle in the second half. Once again, an equal fight ensued on the court, and the difference between the teams continued to stay around 10 points in favor of “Astana”, periodically reaching 14 points, and sometimes decreasing to 7. At the end of the third quarter, just “Astana” led 7 points, and in such a game it was an extremely uncomfortable advantage and meant that the fight in the final quarter period would be very tough. And so it happened when our leaders in the fourth quarter began to show signs of fatigue, the leaders of the “dragons” were also quite tired and this was mainly a confrontation of characters. Our guests gave all the best and were able to even the score three minutes before the end of the match, and a minute later they even had a lead. The key role in the comeback of “Tsmoki” was played by the ex-player of the capital team — Robert Lowry. The ending once again became extremely tense, and the intrigue remained until the final buzzer. “Astana” was able to recoup, but our rivals still had time to attack. Once again, our team successfully defended themselves at the end of the game and pulled out a victory with a final score of 91:89 (28:17, 23:2123:2917:22).

This is the third home game for “Astana” and the third home victory in the regular season of VTB United League. And if you look closely at these games, then it is easy to draw parallels between them. All three games were held in approximately the same scenario, especially when comparing their endings. “Astana” won all three games with a minimal advantage and in all three games our opponents had the last attack and a chance to win, but in all games, our guys competently worked in defense. But the main thing that all three matches have in common is their final result. “Astana” improved its performance in the standings, but remained in 7th place, losing to “Kalev” only for additional indicators.
 


Most effective:

  • “Astana” — Dushan Ristic, as always we can’t hold back and today he scored a double-double: 20 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 block shots. Today's match allowed Dushan to gain a foothold in the first lines of the league leaders' ratings for rebounds and efficiency, as well as in the third line for points. Jeremiah Hill has the most points today — 23 points, 7 assists, and 3 steals. As long as we talk about ratings, then Jeremiah also appeared among the leaders of the league in assists, taking the second place at the moment. Coty Clarke today scored 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists; Malcolm Hill scored 15 points, among them 2 victorious ones.
  • “Tsmoki-Minsk” — in the camp of the rivals the most successful one became an ex -“Astana» player — Robert Lowry, who clearly wanted to prove himself today and he succeeded — 20 points, 8 assists. The leader in rebounds for the “dragons” was Maxim Salash — 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists. And 15 points and 5 assists for Domines Garnett.


Hero: Serbian center “Astana” Dusan Ristic almost did not leave the court for the whole game. In 37 minutes he managed to excel on all fronts: 20 points, 13 rebounds, 3 block shots and 3 assists with 9 of them 13 from the game. 32 points for effectiveness is repeating the fourth result of the season.

Head coach of “Astana” Emil Rajkovic:
- A very important victory, which allowed us to move to the first half of the standings. After success in the matches with «Zenit» and «Loko», we had a little pressure and also wanted to play successfully with «Tsmoki-Minsk». We played very well in the first half, but after a long break, the opponent began to act more aggressively. In the fourth quarter, a critical moment came when we could get psychologically frustrated, but our players showed character and achieved victory.»

Head coach of «Tsmoki-Minsk»:
- Thanks to aggressive defense and team actions in the attack, we were able to return to the game, but in the end, we didn’t have enough composure. At the end, we started playing individually, which was not successful. The last three or four attacks did not prove to be what we expected from them.

Next match: The Presidential Basketball Club “Astana” on November 11 and 12 will play for the first time in history with the debutants of the National League of the Championship of Kazakhstan, the basketball club “Aktobe”. The next match of the VTB League, our guys will be playing exactly one week from now in an away game against the Saratov «Avtodor».


Detailed information about the tournament, standings, the schedule and match results are published in the Tournaments section.



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