Determined to win, the players of the basketball club «Astana» arrived in Estonia, where they will play  with Talinn «Kalev» in the VTB United League. The match will take place on Thursday, November 5, starting at 23.00 Astana time.

«Kalev» - is an Estonian professional men's basketball club from Tallinn, founded in 1920.

Achievements:

• Champion of the USSR — 1991.
• Estonian Champion — 2000, 2005, 2006, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016-2019
• Silver medalist of the Estonian Championship — 2015
• Estonian Cup Winner 2005-2008, 2016, 2017

Team roster:

Estonian Kalev has changed its roster very noticeably since last season. The team was left by the key players of the last season American Kyle Vinales, Estonians Janari Joesaar, Christian Kisting and Latvian Aigars Skele. In addition, the Americans Sasha Killeya-Jones, Tekele Cotton, Michael Finke, as well as Estonians Sander Raieste, Kristjan Kangur  and Martin Paasoja had left the team.



Since last season, there are only three players left in the team and all Estonians — Sten Sokk, Tanel Kurbas and Martin Dorbek. The team was joined by four Americans at once. Center Devin Thomas  played before Kalev in the teams of the Turkish TED Ankara Kolejliler, the Spanish Bilbao Basket, the Israeli Hapoel Eilat, the Greek Lavrio, the Hungarian Alba Fehervar and the Argentinean Penarol. A guard Marcus Keane previously mainly played on the Asian arena: the Thai team Mono Vampire, the South Korean Jeonju KCC Egis and the Taiwanese Formosa Dreamers and Yulon Luxgen Dinos. He also played in the NBA Development League with Memphis Hustle. A guard Gabe Beeler before Kalev played in the Luxembourg team Arantia Larochette, the Macedonian Pelister Sport Bitola and the Serbian Vrsac Swisslion. But forward Chavon Lewis who also played in the VTB United League, previously participated in the Lithuanian Juventus and the Polish Charne and Start. In Kalev he already played in the season 2018/2019, and also managed to play in the teams of Nizhny Novgorod and Yenisey. The squad was replenished with a Latvian player — guard Janis Kaufmanis. Janis started his career in the Latvian teams Valmeira and VEF. In addition, he played in the Spanish team Forca Lleida, and last season he spent in the Latvian Ventspils. Kaufmanis has two Latvian championships under his belt. Five Estonians also have joined the team. Center Rauno Nurger is a ward of Kalev, who played in Spain in the teams Penas Huesca and Breogan. Forward Kregor Hermet mainly played in the Estonian teams — Audentes, Kohila and University of Tartu, in addition he played for the Spanish Forza Lleida. And also young Estonian guards Indrek Sunelik, Georg Kask, Julius-Erik Kastein.

Head coach:

The team, as in the previous season, is headed by the Latvian specialist Roberts Stelmahers. As well as in the last season, he is assisted by Estonian Indrek Reinbock and Latvian Akselis Vairogs. The team has announced another coach this season — Estonian Alar Varrak.



Rival leaders:

The leaders of the team in the past games were the Americans Gabe Bealer, Devin Thomas and Markus Keane. The Estonians Kregor Hermet also showed good results. Latvian Janis Kaufmanis and Estonians Tanel Kurbas, Sten Sokk and Martin Dorbek spent about twenty minutes on the court. Rauno Nurger started in both games.

Tournament position:

Kalev has played only two matches this season and lost both to Zenith and Khimki. Also, due to a positive test for coronavirus, the Estonian team could not come to the game with the Lokomotiv-Kuban team and they were given a technical defeat. Thus, Kalev after three defeats is on the 12th line. Astana with one victory in five games is one line higher, in the 11th position.

Game history:

Until last season, Astana and Kalev met 14 times and the  advantage was on the side of the Kazakh team. But last season the Estonians improved their game and won two games with Astana. Thus, in 16  games Astana won 10 and lost 6.

Interesting Facts:

• Last season, Kalev beat Astana twice.
• Astana played their last match last season before the pandemic exactly with Kalev.

The match will take place on Thursday, 5 November in Tallinn at the Saku Suurhall Arena, starting at 23:00 Astana time. The online broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the Match Center section, and you can also watch the match in replay on the QazSport TV  channel the next day, November 6 at 10:00.

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

The away match of VTB United League against Estonian “Kalev” turned out to be very hot. The intrigue that lasted three quarters was broken by the team of the basketball club «Astana», having seized the initiative in the end and won a very important victory. It should be noted that “Astana” lost three previous face-to-face meetings with “Kalev”, and the last time they brought victory from Tallinn was almost 4 years ago.

The Estonian team won the jump ball quite confidently, but the first points in this match were scored by our Martins Meyers, who then realized his second throw, after which Astana were leading by three points. The hosts very quickly evened the score and after a minute and a half, they were already ahead. Kalev had a good game, but thanks to the efforts of Dmitry Gavrilov and Ojar Silins, the Kazakh team kept away at the arm's length from the rivals. The first points of Devin Marble in this match again brought our team forward, but not for long. The hosts were again in the lead, but Nikolay Bazhin and Jeremiah Hill 'kept their finger on the pulse' and did not allow the opponents to go far into the lead. Nevertheless, Astana lost the first quarter with a deficit of 4 points — 22:18. At the start of the second period, Askar Maidekin scored his first points in the match, but Kalev continued to hold the lead. The players of the Kazakhstani team tried to chase up the rival, and again the first points from Michael Thompson brought Astana forward. In the middle of the second quarter, the teams changed places, “Astana” acted as a leader and “Kalev” tried to catch up. Closer to the big break, the Kazakhstani advantage achieved 9 points, but after twenty minutes of playing time, Astana won six points — 37:43. Looking ahead, the second quarter became the most successful for the Kazakh team, which won 10 points over the quarter.
 


After switching sides, Kalev continued to chase Astana and after less than two minutes they achieved an intermediate goal levelling the score. But Devin Marble and Michael Thompson once again brought back a slight advantage to the Kazakh team. The hosts did not let go of Astana and went with our team neck to neck, and the difference between the teams was minute and even slight advantage could have played advantage to the rivals. But three minutes before the end of the third quarter Jeremiah Hill forced the coaching staff of Kalev to take a time-out, bringing the lead of Astana to seven points. Although this figure is not so impressive, it was quite a lot for such a game. The time-out of the Estonians partially helped them, they were able to stop our team from increasing the lead and slightly close the gap, but Kalev could not catch up with our team until the end of the third ten minutes. Before the fourth quarter, Emil Rajkovic's players were 5 points ahead of the rivals — 61:66. Such a gap could not be called comfortable, and all the most important things awaited us in the last ten minutes. After two game minutes of the fourth quarter, Kalev was losing only 2 points, but the players of Astana gathered themselves and demonstrated a good game segment. By the equator of the quarter, Astana for the first time in the match reached a double-digit advantage, thanks to free throws from Adonis Thomas. The hosts did their best to turn the game around and with forty-five seconds left they were losing only three points. Jeremiah Hill did not disappoint and Astana was again leading by five points. Another time-out of the Estonian coaching staff did not give the desired result, and Michael Thompson, who realized two free throws, put an end to this game — 85:92. 
 
Most productive:

• «Kalev» — Markus Keene, who gave our team hard time with his precise three-pointers, scored 23 points, 3 rebounds and 7 assists. Devin Thomas made a couple of highlights in this game and scored 16 points and 9 rebounds, while Chavon Lewis has 16 points and 5 assists.
• «Astana» demonstrated a good team game and six players scored more than 10 points at once. Michael Thompson has 17 points and 9 assists; Martins Meyers has 16 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists. Jeremiah Hill became the most effective in both teams — 15 points, 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Devin Marble earned 12 points and 5 rebounds, Oyars Silins also scored 12 points, and Adonis Thomas chalked up 11 points and 4 rebounds.

 
«Kalev» head coach — Roberts Stelmahers:
- Today we lacked rotation — we didn't have a few players. It is not easy to play the 4th match in 9 days with an incomplete roster. Of course, the players are tired, but I'm not making excuses. We have to play smart if we want to win the United League.
 
«Astana» head coach — Emil Rajkovic:
- We controlled the pace of the game, did not rush to make decisions and knew what we were doing. This is a very important victory for us after a long period when we only play away games, this was the first game in our full roster, and I am glad that I see potential in our team. We can improve our game and do more.
 
Consequences: Astana after this victory returned to the playoff zone, rising to the eighth line and ahead of Zielona Gora and Khimki, and Kalev, without victories this season, is at the bottom of the table.

Next match: On November 9 and 10, the capital's basketball players will play a series of matches in the framework of the regular championship of the National League, in which the team of the Aktobe basketball club will play as their rival. The next VTB United League match Emil Rajkovic's players will play at home against Yenisei Krasnoyarsk, the game will take place on November 14 at the «Saryarka» Cycling Track arena.
 
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the Tournaments section.