The closest competitors of the basketball club «Astana» in the National League — «Barsy Atyrau» were unable to compete with the capital team in the first of two matches of the postponed series in the National League. For this game, Emil Rajkovic announced Ojars Silins and Jeremiah Hill.
The match started and the first points in this game were scored by Vadim Shcherbak, followed by Maxim Marchuk who opened his personal score with an accurate three-pointer. We didn't have to wait long for counterpoints from rivals. “Barsy Atyrau” went neck to neck with the hosts, not giving them the opportunity to pull away. The guests were able to give a clear, timely response to the scores of Maidekin, Silins, and Marchuk. Moreover, in the seventh minute of the period, the rivals managed to equalize the score, but after that, they got two three-pointers from Rustam Murzagaliyev and “Astana” again broke away a little. However, the ending of the quarter became unsatisfactory for our team. For two and a half minutes, our guys could not score points, and «Barsy», in turn, scored three three-pointers and won the first period — 20:23. The second game segment also started in a bad way for “Astana”. Our players scored five team fouls in just a couple of minutes, and despite the effective actions, “Barsy” remained in the lead. At the same time, it should be noted that our rivals did not score points so actively and, as a result, could not close the gap. The principle “you don’t score, they score” worked pretty quickly, when Ojars Silins, having completed “and one”, equalized the score, and then the capital team trew a three-point extravaganza. In less than three minutes, the ball flew into the ring 6 times from beyond the arc; Jeremiah Hill, Ojars Silins, Rustam Murzagaliev, Anton Ponomarev, and twice Vadim Shcherbak distinguished themselves. During this time, the Atyrau team was able to score only 2 points and were already losing 16. Until the end of the quarter, the guests tightened up a bit, but the last effective attack remained with Shcherbak, who made an “and one” and set the final score in two quarters — 46:31.
The start of the second half was also not entirely successful for Emil Rajkovic's team. After a powerful breakthrough in the second period, “Astana” could not open an account in the quarter and, at the same time, again had a large number of violations. “Barsy Atyrau” almost halved their gap in the first 4 minutes. Finally, Askar Maidekin earned the first points for “Astana” after the side change. After that, the teams “changed roles” — the guests hardly scored points, but “Astana” made a powerful leap thanks to Maxim Marchuk, Robert Pan, Askar Maidekin, and Nikolay Bazhin. After a three-pointer from Kolya, the advantage of “Astana” became significant and exceeded 20 points, but the last effective attack in the quarter remained with the guests, and after three periods the score was 61:43. The final quarter was not productive at all, and our team confidently maintained a comfortable advantage. In five minutes, the rivals exchanged a couple of effective attacks, but this did not have an impact on the score difference. “Barsy Atyrau” made a good segment in the match, reducing the gap to 12 points, but after a time-out taken by Emil Rajkovic, the opponent was unable to score a single point. Meanwhile, Anton Ponomarev scored points for “Astana” first, and the last one to increase his personal score was Rustam Murzagaliev. The final score of the match is 73:56 in favor of “Astana”.
Consequences: for “Astana” this is the penultimate series of games in the National League this season, and with a great deal of confidence we can say that the regular season remains with our team. For “Barsy Atyrau” this defeat also decides little, they confidently remain on the second line.
Most productive:
- «Astana» — Nikolay Bazhin, although he scored only 7 points, became the most effective in “Astana”, adding 9 more rebounds and a block-shot. Rustam Murzagaliev has the most points — 14, plus 4 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals. Vadim Shcherbak, Ojars Silins, and Dmitry Gavrilov scored 11 points each.
- «Barsy Atyrau» — Edward Carter III became the most effective and efficient in both teams — 22 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals. Ryan Cook had 13 points and 4 rebounds.
Next match: The next match of the series with “Barsy Atyrau” will take place tomorrow, March 10, in Nur-Sultan on the court of the cycle track “Saryarka”. The match starts at 19:30 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.
