Having celebrated the victory in the Cup of Kazakhstan, the basketball club «Astana» immediately went to Aktau to play with the local «Caspiy» in the framework of the National League. Matches will be held on Sunday and Monday — November 22 and 23, the beginning of the Sunday match at 19:00, and the game on Monday will start at 18:00 Astana time.
 
«Caspiy» - is a Kazakh professional basketball club from Aktau city, founded in 2008.
 
Achievements:

• Bronze medalist of the Championship of Kazakhstan: 2011/2012, 2012/2013, 2013/2014, 2014/2015, 2016/2017
• Bronze medalist of the Kazakhstan Cup: 2012, 2013, 2017

At the very beginning of the season of the National League, “Astana” played at home with “Caspiy”, and now, less than a month later, our team is making a return visit to Aktau. Our guys confidently beat “Caspiy” twice in the home series and also left them no chances in the semifinal of the Cup of Kazakhstan. Thus, in the upcoming matches, the undisputed advantage will be on the side of Emil Rajkovic's charges.

Changes in the roster: The only change in the team of our opponents was that Pavel Ilyin has left the squad.

Leaders of the rivals: After eight matches in the National League, the leader of the Aktau team was American import Colin Doherty, who is the most productive and effective player of «Caspiy» team. In addition, Colin is the highest-scoring player in the entire league at the moment. In addition to Doherty, let's not forget about the Russian Denis Orlenko, who is leading in block-shots in the whole league. Also, Mikhail Karpenko very often releases Kazakhstanis Vladimir Kurochkin and Aimurat Satkeev from the very start of the games. Also at the heart of the Aktau team are Alexander Orazbekov, Gleb Zhukov, Valery Simonov and Denis Degtyarev.
 
Tournament position: “Astana” now occupies the first position in the main championship of the country, having twice beaten “Aktobe» as well as the Aktau “Caspiy” in the home game. Thus, the capital team is still going without losses with four wins in four matches. After the October games with Astana, “Caspiy”  had played six more games in the National League. At home, they lost twice to the “Almaty Legion”, and then in the return games with “Legion” in Almaty they managed to win one victory in two games. After that, the Aktau team played two home games with “Barsy Atyrau”, in which they lost twice. In total, “Caspiy” played twice as many games as “Astana” in the National League, but at the same time occupies the opposite position — the last line in the standings.
 
The matches will be held on Sunday and Monday — November 22 and 23 in Aktau at the arena of the sports complex «Batyr». Sunday's match starts at 19:00 and Monday's match begins at 18:00 Astana time. Online broadcast of matches will be available on the main page of our website.

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

Basketball club «Astana» began the away series of matches of the National League in Aktau with updating the team performance record for the game. Our guys dominated throughout the entire game and defeated «Caspiy». Among the foreign players, Emil Rajkovic engaged Jeremiah Hill and Devin Marble in the game. 

Dmitriy Gavrilov opened the scoring in this game and earned an and-one in the very first attack, and then Nikolay Bazhin doubled the advantage of “Astana”. “Caspiy” resisted as best they could, but after less than three minutes from the start of the game Jeremiah Hill brought our team's lead to ten points. The hosts could not cope with the torrential attacks of our guys, who developed a very powerful pace, and the Aktau team's gap was increasing every minute. Already in the sixth minute of the first quarter, “Astana” led by thirty points, and the gap in our team's favor exceeded twenty. The hosts were discouraged, but found strength to resist our team at the end of the first quarter, however, after ten minutes of playing time, they lagged already by 22 points. In total, in the first quarter, “Astana” scored a record 41 points, thanks to the excellent team play and performance. Our team continued to confidently lead their game in the second quarter, although less actively used the opportunities in attack, but as for defense, the game has noticeably improved in this respect. By the equator of the quarter, the difference in the score reached 30 points. The yellow-turquoise ones were not going to stop and continued to further break away from their rivals. “Caspiy” managed to score only 7 points in the second ten minutes. Andrey Litvinenko, with his exact three-pointer, brought our score to twenty-six points, and the difference to a hefty 40 points — 27:67.



Despite the fact that there were still twenty minutes to play, there was practically no doubt about the victory of Emil Rajkovic's team, because 40 points of advantage is quite lot, especially since “Astana” was not going to stop at all. The Aktau team was effective in the third quarter, but they could not cope with their rivals from Nur-Sultan. In the middle of the period, “Astana” was very actively gaining points, while “Caspiy” could not respond with their effective attacks to the attacks of the guests. Three minutes before the end of the quarter, “Astana” won almost 50 points. At the end of the third period, the scoreboard showed 49:96 in favor of the capital team, and our rivals simply had no chances. In the last ten minutes, our team noticeably slowed down and it took almost four minutes before Askar Maidekin brought our team's score to three-digit figure. Further, “Astana” also did not increase the pace, but steadily moved towards the next major victory. The hosts managed to record the fourth quarter in their asset, having won it with a three-digit point advantage, but this is nothing compared to how much they eventually lost. “Astana” won a big victory in this game, simultaneously updating the record for points scored in the National League this season — 66:110.

Most productive:

• “Caspiy” — once again in the Aktau team, American player Colin Doherty demonstrated his leadership qualities, who became the most productive and effective player in the camp of our rivals — 20 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists and steals. Kazakhstani Valery Simonov scored 12 points, 4 rebounds and 2 steals.
• “Astana” — Jeremiah Hill spent less than twenty minutes on the court today, but he had them very productively — 26 points, 4 rebounds and steals, and 9 assists. Robert Pan spent the most time on the court — more than twenty-six minutes and during this time he scored 16 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and also made 1 block-shot. Devin Marble had 13 points and 4 rebounds today. Askar Maidekin chalked up 11 points and 4 rebounds, and Dmitriy Gavrilov had 9 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists.

Consequences: “Astana” continues to go their win streak and strengthens their position on the first line of the standings, while “Caspiy” remains on the last position of the rating.

The next match: the second game of the series with “Caspiy” will take place tomorrow, November 23, also in Aktau on the court of the “Batyr” Sports Complex. The match starts at 18:00 Astana time.

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