Basketball club «Astana» in the home match of VTB United League will try to take revenge from Saratov «Avtodor». The game will take place on Sunday, January 31st, starting at 15:00 Nur-Sultan time.

ATTENTION! — Due to the restrictive measures introduced in the capital aimed to tackle down the coronavirus pandemic, the match will be held without spectators with empty stands.

«Avtodor» is a Russian professional men's basketball club from the city of Saratov, founded in 1960.

Achievements:
•   Silver medalist of the Russian Championship — 1993/1994, 1996/1997, 1997/1998, 1998/1999
•   Bronze medalist of the Championship of Russia — 1995/1996
•   Semi-finalist of the European Cup — 1997/1998
•   Champion of Super League A — 1996/1997, 1997/1998
•   Superleague B Champion — 2008/2009
•   Super League Champion — 2013/2014
•   Bronze medalist of the Super League — 2012/2013

«Avtodor « in the first game against «Astana», which took place in Saratov at the beginning of the season on October 22, won a fairly confident victory — 107: 85. It should be noted that then in the first quarter Saratov team scored almost every shot, and this advantage, created after the first ten minutes, became the main guarantee of their victory in that game. The successful streak of the Saratov team began from that match when they celebrated victory after four games in a row. “Khimki”, “Tsmoki-Minsk”, “Lokomotiv-Kuban” and “Enisey” could not resist the Saratov team. In the last game before the New Year, they lost only one point to «Zielona Gora». This year «Avtodor» is not playing so successfully. They lost substantially in matches with UNICS and “Zenit”, then they were able to win a home victory in the game against “Kalev”. In the last two games, Saratov lost at home to CSKA and away game to «Zielona Gora».

Tournament position:

Before playing the second game with our team, «Avtodor» had played 13 games and won six of them. This result allows the Saratov team to be on the seventh line of the standings. It is worth noting that when «Avtodor» played more successfully, they were among the top three leaders. “Astana” played 12 regular-season games and so far we have only 4 victories and find ourselves on the tenth line in the standings. The outcome of this game will not affect the position of “Astana” and in any case, our guys will remain on the tenth line, while “Avtodor” will keep the seventh line in case of a victory, and in case of defeat they will let “Khimki” ahead.

Roster changes:

There have been significant changes in the «Avtodor» roster since the previous match. On the same day, when the game with “Astana” took place, two players left the Saratov team at once — American Ben Emelogu and Russian player Nikolay Mukha. By the way, Nikolay continued his career in Kazakhstan, in the Aktobe team, and now he is announced for Karaganda. In December, another Russian player, Yegor Bestuzhev, went on loan to «Ufimets». Less than a week before the game in Nur-Sultan, it became known that Avtodor had terminated the contract with American centre Drew Gordon.

As for the newcomers, the Saratov team immediately signed up four young players from the farm team — forwards Alexander Baryshev, Vadim Kharisov, Vsevolod Shirobokov and Ilya Saltykov, but apart from Saltykov, none of them has entered the court. Also, three foreign players have joined Avtodor. Puerto Rico guard Gian Clavell played for the first time for Avtodor on 26 November. He began his career in Puerto Rico with «Brujos de Guayama» and then joined the NBA with «Dallas Mavericks». After that, he played in Europe — Turkish “Sakarya” and “Bursasport”, as well as Spanish “Estudiantes”. In December, the team was joined by the centre from Chad — Christ Koumadje with very impressive parameters — 224 cm and 124 kg. Christ became the best defensive player in the NBA Development League in his debut season with the Delaware «Blue Coates», and this season he started with the Spanish «Estudiantes». On January 27, Avtodor announced the signing of centre Dusan Ristic, exactly the one who was one of the leaders of «Astana» last season. But whether Dusan will participate in the match with our team is open to question.

Rival leaders:

The most effective and efficient in the team is the American Nate Mason. Another team leader is Croatian forward Zeljko Sakic. There are few more: Markel Starks, Gian Clavell, Nikita Mikhailovsky and Anton Kvitkovsky. In addition, the coaching staff of Avtodor often engages Alan Makiev, Alexander Petenev and Evgeny Minchenko.

The match will take place on Sunday, January 31 in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Republican cycle track «Saryarka», beginning at 15:00 Nur-Sultan time. The online broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the Match Center section, as well as live on the QazSport TV channel.

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

Having boldly started the home match against «Avtodor» Saratov with an advantage of +10 in the first quarter, basketball club «Astana» allowed the opponents to catch up and seize the initiative in the second half of the match.

The jump ball went to our team, and in the very first attack Martins Meyers opened the scoring. The guests' response was not long in coming, and «Avtodor» took the lead. Then Adonis Thomas scored the first three-pointer in this game and brought “Astana” forward. In general, in the first five minutes of the game, almost all points for our team were scored by Adonis, plus Robert Pan scored an accurate three-pointer. By the middle of the starting quarter Saratov were 6 points behind, and after a series of successful attacks performed by Nikolay Bazhin and Michael Thompson, the difference in the score became double-digit. The guests did their best to reduce the gap and at some point they succeeded. However, Avtodor's comeback was countered by Devin Marble, who actively chalked up points in the second half of the period. At the end of the quarter, Michael Thompson again distinguished himself with an accurate throw from the paint and again made the advantage of “Astana” double-digit — 29:19. In the second period, Devin Marble continued to maintain the advantage of our team in the area of ten points, and the captain — Rustam Murzagaliyev with his three-pointer started a small spurt, which allowed us to break away from the rivals by 17 points. In the middle of the second quarter, there was an unpleasant incident with the participation of Martins Meyers, who socred the ball into the opponents' ring with a dunk, but at the same time played inaccurately in the offense. Not only did our player’s points not count, but he also received an unsportsmanlike foul, and in addition to this, the referees issued a technical foul to our team. Thus, the guests got the right to shoot three free throws and after that the possession remained with them. They got the most out of this moment and the difference between the teams was reduced to 10 points. After a couple of minutes, the Saratov team's lag was already reduced to 6 points. Until the end of the first half of the match, points were scored by Martins Meyers and Jeremiah Hill, but our team failed to return the double-digit advantage. The final score of the first half was set by Dmitry Gavrilov — 48:41.



Michael Thompson opened the second half with another accurate long-range attack and once again created a double-digit lead for his team. This did not bother Avtodor and the Saratov team began to impose their game, and after two and a half minutes of the game in the third quarter the score was equal. Naturally, this did not suit our coaching staff and Emil Rajkovic took a break to slow down the pace of his opponents and adjust the game of his players. The entire the third period went in bitter struggle for the initiative and the teams replaced each other several times as leaders, and the score became equal several times. Devin Marble, two minutes before the end of the quarter, once again leveled the score, but as it turned out, these were the last points scored by our team in this ten-minute period, and the Saratov team, meanwhile, recorded 7 more points. It was with such a lag that “Astana” came to the beginning of the fourth quarter — 59:66, and the third one proved to be extremely unsuccessful. 7 points of advantage turned into 7 points of lag. The fight in the fourth quarter became even more intense. After the points of Marble and Thomas, the gap was only five points, but Avtodor clung to its fragile advantage and did not let «Astana» to catch up. In the middle of the period, after Michael Thompson's successful free throws, which reduced the gap to 6 points, the Saratov coaching staff took advantage of the right to a one-minute break. This time-out was good for them and after a couple of minutes they won more than 10 points. There was not much time left to rectify the situation, but it was aggravated by the fact that a few minutes before the end of the match Martins Meyers received a foul, which became his fifth, and he left the court. The last intrigue in the match was brought by Michael Thompson, who reduced the difference to 7 points one and a half minutes before the final buzzer, but Avtodor did its best to avoid a difficult ending. The last minute of the match was very eventful. At its start, the score difference was 10 points, but our team made every effort. With 9 seconds left, Adonis Thomas brought the gap to four points, but there was very little time left. After the last time-out, the players of “Astana” failed to realize everything that Emil Rajkovic planned  for them and missed a very important victory — 83:92.

Consequences: Both teams retained their positions in the standings, «Avtodor»  is seventh, and «Astana» is tenth, but at the same time our team is even further from the playoff zone.
 
Most productive:

• «Astana» — Michael Thompson recorded 20 points, 3 rebounds, 9 assists and 2 steals, Devin Marble — 19 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals. Adonis Thomas had 15 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists, and today Martins Meyers got 10 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists.
• «Avtodor» - scored a double-double with Zeljko Sakic — 20 points and 11 rebounds, Evgeny Minchenko scored 19 points, while Nate Mason and Nikita Mikhailovsky each had 17 points.

 
Head coach of «Astana» — Emil Rajkovic:
 - Congratulations to «Avtodor» on the victory — our opponent played better today, especially in the second half. We started the first half well, but after that we had problems with the number of fouls. Ojars Silins could not play today, which is why Zeljko Sakic gave us a lot of grief. I believe that was the main reason why we lost today.»

Head coach of «Avtodor» — Gordy Herbert:
- I am very proud of my players. We have faced a lot of difficulties over the past week. Some players were sick and could not continue practicing. It took us 30 hours to get to Nur-Sultan. Despite all this, we managed to achieve an important victory. Congratulations to our team for an excellent result and performance, especially in the last 25 minutes.
 
Next match: »Astana» basketball players will continue to receive guests as part of the VTB United League; Krasnoyarsk «Enisey» will arrive in Nur-Sultan on February 4, and our guys will spend the first weekend of February in Aktobe, where they will meet twice with the local team of the same name already in the framework of National League.

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