The capital team has already confidently beaten “Caspiy” twice and in the match with the current rivals from Aktobe our basketball players were the clear favourite. “Aktobe” has already played 4 games this season, winning only one. For this match, Emil Rajković nominated Devin Marble and Martins Meyers from among the foreign players.
Anton Ponomarev opened a score in this game, and Martins Meyers was simply unstoppable at the start of the game. The Latvian scored twelve from the first fifteen points of his team and he brought the capital's advantage to a double-digit figure less than in five minutes from the start of the match. The players of “Aktobe” absolutely did not cope with our guys, who confidently continued to break away. So after the exact three-pointer from Maxim Marchuk, the advantage of “Astana” exceeded twenty points. Our opponents managed to score only eight points in ten minutes of the game, and “Astana”, in turn, scored almost thirty points and had a powerful advantage — 29: 8. “Aktobe” at the start of the second quarter began to reduce its lead and obviously tried to turn the tide of the game. After the gap was reduced to fifteen points, the players of “Astana” became noticeably more proactive; Ruslan Aitkali and Nikolay Bazhin quickly returned the gap to twenty points, and after three points from Andrey Litvinenko, our gap increased to 27 points. Until the end of the first half, the game went fairly smooth, and “Astana” felt absolutely comfortable within the advantage of about thirty points. The first twenty minutes ended with the score 52:24 in favour of Emil Rajkovic's team.
At the end of the fifteen-minute break, Anton Ponomarev brought the leaders of the capital's team to thirty points, and after accurate throws from Rustam Murzagaliev and Vadim Shcherbak, our team's advantage reached thirty-five points. Our basketball players completely controlled what was happening on the court, and the difference did not change much throughout the remaining quarter. “Aktobe” periodically completed attacks successfully, but each of their attacks was followed by a confident response from the capital team. Thus, after thirty minutes of the gamey, the hosts outplayed their rivals by thirty-five points — 74:39. Such an advantage killed all the intrigue in this game, and no one doubted that “Astana” would win a landslide victory today. In the last game segment, the hosts did not increase the pace but confidently were moving towards the victory. The guests from Aktobe had a good fourth ten-minute period, and for them, it became the most productive in the match, but this in no way influenced the outcome of the entire game. The capital team brought the game to a confident victory, and at the last minute, they reached a hundred, which became the first this season, not counting the pre-season victory with “Tobol” — 100: 62.
Most productive:
- «Astana» — all the players of our team who participated in the game scored points in this game. Martins Meyers not only had an excellent start to the game but in general became the most effective player — 18 points, 5 rebounds. Devin Marble has an excellent record — 15 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. As of the Kazakh players, Ruslan Aitkali became the most effective — 9 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals and Anton Ponomarev — 9 points, 3 rebounds, 2 steals.
- “Aktobe” — representatives of Uzbekistan Emir Azizov became the best in the opposing team — 19 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists and Bakhtiyor Nasriddinov — 13 points, 7 rebounds
What's next: this game did not affect the alignment of teams in the standings — “Astana” continues to occupy the first line, and “Aktobe” is still on the fifth position.
The next match: the second game of the series with “Aktobe” will take place tomorrow, November 10, also on the court of the “Saryarka” Cycling Track. The meeting starts at 19:30 Astana time.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
