The return home series of the basketball club «Astana» against «Almaty Legion» in connection with the restrictive measures introduced in the capital due to the COVID-19 pandemic will be held at a neutral site in Shchuchinsk.

«Almaty Legion» - is a Kazakh professional team from Almaty, part of the basketball club «Almaty», which was created in 2006.

Achievements:

• Two-time winner of the Kazakhstan Cup — 2015, 2016
• Champion of the Higher League of Kazakhstan — 2017/2018
• Silver medalist of the Major League of Kazakhstan — 2016/2017
• Silver medalist of the National League of Kazakhstan — 2007/2008, 2014/2015
• Bronze medalist of the National League of Kazakhstan — 2008/2009

“Astana” this season has already played two matches with “Almaty Legion”. The last series of games took place in the southern capital at the beginning of December last year, and our team more than confidently dealt with rivals in both games. Almaty team had difficulties in the new year, as a result of which their roster changed noticeably not for the strong side. Thus, “Astana” in the upcoming series is the undisputed favorite.

Changes in the roster: As already noted, Legion has, for financial reasons, greatly changed its roster compared to the previous series of games not for the better. All the imports had left the team: Dmitry Sviridov, Alexander Kodola, Sergey Marikhin and Roman Lagutin, who moved to “Kaspiy”. Another leader of Almaty team, Roman Marchuk, also joined the Aktau team. Anuar Shakirov moved to Shymkent “Kazygurt”, and Konstantin Marzan also left “Legion”. Their places were taken by young players from the farm team: Raimbek Rahmedet, Arsen Ordokov, Diaz Kalymbetov, Andrey Volkov, Daniil Severgin, Adil Taipov and Kairat Raimov.

Leading rivals: After most of the major players have left, Legion's coaching staff are betting on the youth. Vadim Korzhov, who performed well before the New Year, is currently the most effective and efficient in the team. The role of the main «big» in the team went to Nikita Timofeev and Daniel Albrant. In addition, the base now includes Temirlan Dzhunusov, Vadim Fabrikantov, Stanislav Sakhipov and Maxim Rakovskikh.

Tournament position: “Astana” confidently occupies the first line in the championship of Kazakhstan and has been playing the tournament without defeat. “Almaty Legion” before the New Year and the difficulties that arose had a good season, having won 7 victories in 14 games, which allowed them to take the third line. However, after the change in the roster, they have already lost twice, both times in Kostanay, but so far the points they earned in the first half of the season allow them to remain in the top three. However, in the event of two defeats in the upcoming series, they will yield the third position to “Tobol”.

The matches will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday — January 26 and 27 in Shchuchinsk at the arena of the Zhaksy 2 sports base. The first match starts at 18:00, and the re-match will begin at 15:00 Nursultan time. Live broadcast of the matches will be available on the home page of our website and on our YouTube chanel.

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

Another two-legged confrontation between the northern and southern capitals began with a crushing defeat of the rivals of the basketball club «Astana». The renewed composition of the «Almaty Legion» did not withstand the pressure of the capital squad, and our guys updated the season record in terms of the score difference. At the same time, Emil Raikovich announced only Kazakh players for the match.

The scoring in this game was opened by Robert Pan, who earned the first six points not only for our team, but in general. “Almaty Legion” scored five points in five minutes of the game, but were already losing 10. The capital team did not stop and completely dominated the game. At the last minute of the first period, Vadim Shcherbak “broke” the twenty-point line in our advantage, and the whole quarter ended with the score — 34:13 in our favor. In the second quarter, the capital's control did fade away, although the overall performance worsened. The “Almaty Legion” simply had nothing to oppose to the more experienced “Astana” and, their lag, increased every minute. In the seventh minute of the period, Dmitry Gavrilov brought the gap to 30 points. And already the final score in the first quarter was set by Maksim Marchuk — 57:20.



Immediately after fifteen-minute break, Rustam Murzagaliyev brought Astana's advantage to forty points. And by the middle of the third period the difference after Maxim Marchuk's shot it exceeded to fifty points. In the third quarter Almaty team scored 11 points, and our team scored ten more points — 21 points. Before the final quarter the difference between the teams was huge — 78:31. Andrey Litvinenko in the fourth quarter immediately increased to fifty points of advantage for the capital team. The “Almaty Legion” did everything they could in this game, but the level of the teams was completely different. Four minutes before the end, Nikolay Bazhin brought the capital's team's advantage to 60 points, and a minute later he also scored one hundred and first points in our team's favour in this game. The last points in this game were scored by Anton Ponomarev. Initially, it was clear that the teams' rosters are different in terms of training and experience, but the rules are rules “Astana” defeated “Almaty Legion” with a score of 109: 41
 
Consequences: “Astana” is hardly threatened by anything on the first line of the standings, and “Legion” after this defeat lost a line and went down to the fourth.



Most productive:

• “Astana” - all our players who entered the court in this match scored points. Most of all, Robert Pan scored 21 points and 8 rebounds. Anton Ponomarev earned a double-double — 13 points, 7 rebounds, 10 assists and 3 steals. Ruslan Aitkali has 14 points and 8 rebounds; 12 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals from Nikolay Bazhin and 17 points from Vadim Shcherbak.
• “Almaty Legion” — Daniel Albrant became the best of the opponent, who earned a double-double today — 16 points, 10 rebounds and 2 block shots.

Next match: The second game of the series with “Almaty Legion” will take place tomorrow, January 27, also in Shchuchinsk at the site of the sports base “Zhaksy 2”. The match starts at 15:00 Nur-Sultan time. The online broadcast of the game will be available on the home page of our website and on our YouTube channel.

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