Away game with «Kalev» ended in defeat for «Astana»

26.11.2019, 10:00    Views: 398
Source: Press service
Author:

An away match of the Astana Presidential Basketball Club against the Estonian Kalev in the VTB United League ended in a victory for the hosts.

The first points scored in the match were in favor of our team, but it is worth noting straight away that the start of the match turned out to be extremely ineffective. Both teams lost a lot of shots, which resulted in that after 3 minutes of the game the score was only — 2: 2. Then the hosts came forward, but Astana made a minor breakthrough. “Kalev” was clearly set to change this scenario and the response of the Estonians was not long to come. The hosts' counterattack only spurred our guys, who successfully completed the quarter and led 4 points. In the second quarter, the tense competition continued, the capital basketball players tried to seize the initiative, but the basket of rivals very rarely succumbed to them in the attack. Estonians played more actively in the second quarter but they failed to create a comfortable gap. A minute and a half before the start of the big break, the score was equal, but the ending remained in favor of «Kalev», who won the second quarter and was leading by 4 points — 40:36.



“Astana” lost only 4 points in the first half of the match, and the game still had an intrigue, and the whole struggle was still ahead. After a minute of the game, our guys lost concentration and missed the attack of opponents, and the gap for “Astana” became double-digit. The main reason for the lack of success was the very low performance of the wards of Emil Rajkovic, who lost a lot of shots during the game. “Kalev” played confidently and firmly preserved their advantage, and the difference in the score for most time of the quarter was kept in between 10 points. At the end of the third quarter, the Kazakhstan team again could not hols the rivals' breakthrough and lost 18 points before the final quarter, which was already a serious cause for concern. In general, the third quarter was extremely unsuccessful for our team, and the main reason was the same low implementation of the shots. Meanwhile, “Kalev”, on the contrary, played confidently and clearly held the initiative in their hands throughout the third period. Winning a match by losing 18 points 10 minutes before the end is extremely difficult. Emil Rajkovic had to think of something in order to turn the tide of the game, and the players had to forget their inexpressive game in the third quarter. The mentor of the capital team managed to motivate players and make the right replacements. “Astana” began to recoup, and the intrigue became sharper and sharper every minute. As a result, “Astana” managed to reduce the backlog by two-thirds, and four minutes before the end the difference was only 6 points. The coaching staff of “Kalev” threw all the reserves in order to save the victory and not to aggravate the intrigue anymore, and our guys, unfortunately, could not pull out this game — 84:76 (15:19, 25:17, 31:17, 13:23 ).
 


Most productive:

  • «Astana» — the main scorer of the match in the capital team was Malcolm Hill, who scored 22 points. Dusan Ristic gained another double-double — 14 points and 10 rebounds. Isaiah Whitehead, who had 15 points and 5 rebounds, made a significant contribution to the result of “Astana”.
  • “Kalev” — Kyle Vinales became the headache of the wards of Emil Rajkovic scoring 23 points, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists. Janari Joesaar created no fewer problems for our guys — 21 points and 8 rebounds.


Consequences: “Astana”, after the game in Tallinn, postponed their first away victory for the future and so far justifies the title of a “home team”. In the standings, “Astana” went down to the 10th line of the rating. Our team has failed so far, but both the players and the coaching staff will work on the mistakes after two lost away games.

Head coach of «Kalev» — Roberts Štelmahers:
- I am very pleased with this victory, especially after three consecutive defeats in the VTB League. We achieved this result on the home court, which is also very nice. Today they acted well in defense, controlled the rebound, as agreed before the match.

Head coach of «Astana» - Emil Rajkovic:
- Congratulations to «Kalev». The opponent played better in the second half and especially in the third quarter, and therefore won. We could not return to the game, the gap was too large, we no longer had enough strength. Today we made some fatal mistakes, especially in defense. We made some throws hastily and played basketball, which unusual for us.

Next match: «Astana» will hold the next away matches on December 1 and 2, the capital basketball players will be visiting Aktobe, where they will meet with the club of the same name as part of the National League regular season. The next opponent of the wards of Emil Rajkovic in the VTB United League is «Nizhny Novgorod», the game will take place on December 7 in Nur-Sultan in the Saryarka cycle track arena. Tickets for the match are already on sale at Ticketon.kz.

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



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