The home game of the basketball club «Astana» with «Zielona Gora» in the VTB United League was twice postponed during the season, and finally, the Poles arrived in the capital to meet with our guys in the return match. The meeting of the teams will take place on Thursday, April 22, starting at 21:00 Nur-Sultan time.
 
ATTENTION! — In connection with the restrictive measures introduced in the capital due to the coronavirus pandemic, the match will be held without spectators with empty stands.

«Zielona Gora» is a Polish professional men's basketball club from Zielona Gora, founded in 1946. This season, in addition to participating in the VTB United League, the team competes in the Polish Championship.
 
Achievements:

• Winner of the Polish Championship — 2012/2013, 2014/2015, 2015/2016, 2016/2017, 2019/2020
• Silver medalist of the Polish Championship — 2013/2014
• Bronze medalist of the Polish Championship — 2011/2012
• Polish Cup Winner — 2015, 2017
• Silver medalist of the Polish Cup — 2016, 2018
• Polish Super Cup Winner — 2015

 


The game with “Zielona Gora” will be the penultimate one this season in the VTB League for “Astana”, the first match with the Polish team that took place before the New Year, in December in Poland. Then the Poles achieved an impressive victory. After that, the Poles played 13 games. The following games after “Astana” “Zelena Gora” played on the road, having won difficult games with “PARMA” and “Avtodor”, having stepped only one point to UNICS and scoring another not easy victory with “Tsmoki-Minsk”. Then there was another victory over «Avtodor», now at home, and then an away victory over Kalev. On February 1, the game against CSKA in Poland took place, which ended in a historic and sensational victory for «Zielona Gora». But then they lost to «Nizhny Novgorod» at home but were able to beat «Khimki». In March, they were able to defeat “PARMA” at home and won big against “Yenisey”, but then they lost to “Kalev” and the “Khimki” team confident revenge. Only in three of these thirteen matches, the difference was more than ten points, while two of these games were won by «Zielona Gora».
 
Tournament position:

Despite a bad start to the season, four defeats in a row, now “Zielona Gora” is confidently in sixth place with thirteen wins and ten defeats. They have already made it to the playoffs and this is their last game in the regular season. “Zielona Gora” will no longer be able to rise higher, but this victory is important for them, as it will finally secure fourth place for them. Their closest pursuer “Khimki” is only one victory behind them, and if “Zelena Gora” yields to “Astana” and “Khimki” win their last game, then the Moscow team will bypass the Poles in the standings. “Astana” now has the twelfth place with five victories in 22 games, they will definitely not go down below, but there is still a chance to rise one line higher. And for this, it is necessary not only to win this match, but also the next one, as well as for “Enisey” to lose both of its remaining games.
 
Roster changes:

At the end of January,the Pole Marc el Ponitka left the team, who moved to “PARMA”. American Blake Reynolds at the end of February moved from the Polish team to the Romanian one, and the Dane Gabriel Lundberg, also at the end of February, was “lured away” by Moscow CSKA. On the other hand, six new players joined Zielona Gora's roster at once. Two Americans joined the Polish team at once. Experienced guard Skyler Brawlin has spent his entire career in Europe. He has experience in such teams as «Topstar Kangurus», «Giessen Forty Sixers», «Science City Jena» and «c. Oliver Wurzburg», as well as Danish “Horsens”, Austrian “Wells” and Swedish “Söderling Kings”, and this season he started in the Greek “Iraklis”. Another American guard Adam King, also has been spending his professional career only in Europe and before the Polish team played in the Italian “Roseto Sharks”, “Ordzinuovi”, “Orlandino” and “Ravenna”, in addition, there were French “Elan Chalon” and Turkish “Socar Petkim ”. Last and the beginning of this season, he spent in Greece, in the teams «PAOK» and «Ionikos». Greek defender Nikos Pappas has mainly played in the Greek teams — «Panellinios», «Colossos Rhoda», «PAOK», «Panionios» and «Panathinaikos», with whom he became the Greek champion and Greek Cup winner five times. Nikos also played in the Spanish “Bilbao” and “Real Madrid B”, and he started the season in the Israeli “Hapoel Jerusalem”. In addition, it is worth noting that Pappas became the champion and silver medalist in the European championships in both the U-18 and U-20 categories, and was also the silver medalist of the world in the U-19 category. Three more players joined the team with Polish citizenship, but if the experienced center Krzysztof Sulima played exclusively in Poland, and the young guard Nikodem Klotsek is just starting his career, then the forward Davil Brembli spent many seasons in Germany. And it's no wonder because he has dual German-Polish citizenship, and he was born in Germany, and at least he started his career in Poland with «Trefl Sopot», and then spent 7 seasons in Germany with «Medi Bayreutf», «Ratiopharm Ulm», «Eisbaren Bremerhaven», «Mittldeutcher» and «Crailsheim Merlins».

Rival leaders:

At the moment, the leaders of the team are Rolands Freimanis and Jeffrey Grosell. Also, Chris Richard and Janis Berzins are also stars of the team. In addition, Adam Smith fit in the team perfectly, although so far he has only played 2 matches in the VTB United League. In addition, the base of the Polish team includes Sisil Williams and Lukasz Kosharek, as well as Skyler Bowlin, Davil Brembli and Krzysztof Sulima, who have perfectly joined the team.
 
The match will take place on Thursday 22nd in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Republican cycle track «Saryarka», beginning at 21:00 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.

Congratulations to all the fans of the basketball club «Astana» on the long-awaited victory! Today our guys gave their best and achieved success in a difficult but exciting home game against «Zielona Gora»! The team also played this match without head coach Emil Rajkovic and coaches Marko Velichkovich and Yevgeny Isakov, who are getting better but are still in quarantine. The last time, the duties of the head coach were also performed by Sasho Tadorovski, and the coach of our academy, Dejan Parezhanin, helped him again. Also, players Michael Thompson and Adonis Thomas were not included in the roster in addition to Eric Buckner, who was injured in the previous match and watched the game from the stands.
 
The jump ball was won by Askar Maidekin, and in the very first attack, our team opened the score in the match. Jeremiah Hill earned the right to free kicks, which he successfully coped with. The guests did not keep themselves waiting for an answer and quickly equalized the score. Hill was again accurate from the penalty line, again bringing “Astana” forward, after which “Zielona Gora” was the first to realize a long-range shot and came forward. After the points performed by Askar Maidekin and Nikolay Bazhin, the score was again equal. The middle of the first period was better for the Poles, who made a spurt of +6. Askar Maidekin implemented two attacks in a row and the difference was reduced to two points. Until the end of the period “Astana” tried to catch up with rivals: Ojars Silins was the first from our team to score a three-pointer, and Ruslan Aitkali also opened his personal score in this game, but our guys could not catch up with the opponents in this quarter — 20:23. At the start of the second ten minutes, Hill and Aitkali realized a spectacular alley-up, and Silins was accurate from beyond the arc, but «Astana» was still lagging behind. Then Bazhin reduced the gap to two points, Maidekin equalized the score, and Hill earned the first points in the match from a long distance and again brought our team forward. The guests once again managed to tip the scales in their favor, but Ojars Silins returned the balance to the game. In the last three minutes of the first half of the game, the teams were able to implement three attacks, two of which were fruitful, Rustam Murzagaliev and Ruslan Aitkali distinguished themselves. Thanks to this, “Astana” went for a long break with a slight advantage — 39:37.



After the changeover, Jeremiah converted another three-pointer and then gave an assist to Maxim Marchuk's alley-up. The rivals tried to catch up with our team, but Nikolay Bazhin and Maxim Marchuk, with their scoring points, did not allow the guests to catch up with “Astana”. In the middle of the third period, Hill and Silins contributed to the advantage of the Kazakh team. Nevertheless, “Zielona Gora” did not allow the yellow-turquoise team to increase their lead and at some point they managed to seize the initiative. They completely won back their gap and pulled away. Our guys reacted quickly and took counter-measures — Maksim Marchuk equalized the score, and Hill put  »Astana» into the lead. However, the last effective attack in the third period remained with our rivals, who equalized the score before the final quarter — 61:61. The start of the final quarter was kicked off by our captain — Rustam Murzagaliev made a three-pointer attempt, and Dmitry Gavrilov scored his first points from the penalty line, thus the advantage of our team reached five points. But the opponent was not going to stop, and two of the three were proof of that — “Zielona Gora” came out ahead. The middle of the period passed in the struggle for leadership and the teams swapped a couple of times in the role of the leader, and the score became equal more than once. In this fight, Jeremiah Hill, Nikolay Bazhin, and Ojars Silins were marked with effective points in our team. After that, perhaps, the key moments in the game took place. First, Hill scored a three-pointer, and then one of the leaders of “Zielona Gora” and ex-player of “Astana” Jeffrey Grosell received the fifth foul and watched the match from the bench for the last three and a half minutes. After that Maidekin and Marchuk earned points and brought the difference to six points three minutes before the final buzzer. The coaching staff of the rivals spent an effective time-out and the guests from Poland reduced the gap to one point in a minute, greatly exacerbating the intrigue. Maxim Marchuk made a very important attempt in the pass. Then the teams made several mistakes, and less than a minute before the end the difference was only two points. Without Grosell, the opponents did not play well in attack and they had to commit tactical fouls and Jeremiah Hill got in the fire line, who had scored 6 free throws out of 10 before. But Hill did not allow this to happen again, having realized all 4 of his attempts at the end of the match, and setting the final score — 88:82.
 
Consequences: The victory in this meeting was important for “Zielona Gora”, and not only our fans, but also the fans of “Khimki” were rooting for “Astana” in this game. Our team saved Khimki's chance for the result with their victory. A new sixth place in the regular season, and now «Khimki» have to win their home game against «Avtodor» on Sunday to move the Polish squad from sixth place, and the Poles can only wait, as they played all their games in the regular season. “Astana” not only helped “Khimki” but also retained a chance to rise one line higher, as they caught up with “Yenisei” in points and lose only by the results of the personal games. And now, in order to rise to the 11th final line, our team needs to win “Tsmoki-Minsk”, but also so that “Yenisei” should lose to “Kalev”.
 
Most productive:

• «Astana» — the hero of the match was Jeremiah Hill, who earned a double-double in 38 minutes on the court — 26 points, 7 rebounds, 11 assists, and made a block-shot. Nikolay Bazhin became another leader of our team in the match — 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals. Ojars Silins demonstrated a good game — 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block shot. Maxim Marchuk has 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. And Askar Maidekin in this game scored 9 points, 4 rebounds. 2 assists, and had 2 block shots.
• «Zielona Gora» — the leaders of the rivals showed a good game today. Rolands Freimanis scored 21 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 3 block shots, and Jeffrey Grosell, although he did not finish the match, managed to score 16 points and 4 rebounds.

 
Acting head coach of «Astana» — Sasho Todorovski:
- Finally, we have achieved a victory — today we deserve it. Congratulations to the team. All players gave their best and did their best on the court. I would also like to note that our young players got more playing time. I hope that at the next game our coaching staff will be in full force.

«Zielona Gora» head coach — Jean Tabak:
- Congratulations to «Astana» on the victory. From the very beginning, they played with more energy and were ahead of us. To be honest, I have no explanation why we play like this in the last VTB League games. Today we did not go to the court with the right attitude.
     
Next match: The capital team will play the final match of the VTB United League regular championship on Sunday 25 April at home against the Belarusian team Tsmoki Minsk, and this game will be the last in the entire season of this tournament for Astana.

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