Basketball club «Astana» will play two home series of matches of the National League against «Aktobe» at once to transfer the return away series with the red-whites to the capital. The games will be held in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Saryarka cycle track on December 23, 24, 26, and 27. The first two and last games start at 19:30, and the Sunday match kicks off at 15:00 Nur-Sultan time.

ATTENTION — We ask all fans to read the Rules for visiting home matches carefully. The entrance to the arena will be carried out only through the Northern door (from the side of Orynbor street, opposite the gas station).

Aktobe is a Kazakh basketball club from Aktobe, founded in 2017.

Achievements:

• Winner of the Major League Championship of Kazakhstan: 2018/2019

The roster of the team: «Aktobe» was quite an extensive reshuffle last season, and only seven players have stayed in this team this season. All foreign players left the team — Mitchell Tabet, Kent Hanson, Vladislav Gusak, Emir Azizov, and Bakhtiyor Nasriddinov, who moved to «Kaspian.» Azim Yagodkin, Aidarkhan Toktarov, Roman Grekov, Nikita Lytykh, Nikita Fedchenko, and Ruslan Trenin left the team from Kazakhstan. Sergey Bormatenkov, Vasily Petrishinets, Alexander Evdokimov, Alexander Papshiv, Bakyt Makhanalin, Bogdan Lasch, and Stanislav Rovovoy remained from last season. However, Rovovoy had already farewelled to the team from the start of the season. Konstantin Dvirny returned to the team after two seasons at Tobol. Anton Ponomarev continues his revived career at Aktobe. Also, at the beginning of the season, a couple of young players were announced — Danil Rudometkin and Baynazar Omarov, who played in the farm team last season. Before the first game, two players joined the team — Kazakhstani Arsen Teleuov, the team's coach, and American point guard Dalvin Houg, who had previously played in the Armenian team «Gyumri.» A little later, another American joined the team — forward Davrius Wright. Already in December, «Aktobe» was replenished with three Russian players — powerful forward Alexander Tikhonin, a pupil of CSKA, and spent the last seasons with «MBA» and «TEMP-SUMZ-UMMC» from Russia. A point guard Boris Nazmutdinov once played in the second team of UNICS Kazan and also managed to play in «Ufimets» and Kupol-Rodniki. Forward Ivan Belousov spent previous seasons in the VTB Youth League as part of «Zenit 2.»  Another addition is a young Kazakhstani from the local second team of the last season — Bibarys Aitkulov.

Head coach: The loudest change happened in the coaching staff. Elen Shakirova, one of the most experienced basketball players of the past, has become the head coach this season. Helen — Olympic champion, European champion, twice silver, and once bronze medalist in Europe. She played in the Soviet and Russian teams «Hatis,» «CSKA Moscow,» «Dynamo Moscow,» «Baltic Star,» «Vologda-Chevakata,» «Nadezhda and Energia.» She spent the middle of her career in foreign teams «Valenciennes-Orsha» — France, «Lotos Gdynia» — Poland and «Gambrinus Brno» — Czech Republic, and also played in the women's NBA with «Houston Comets.» She started as a coach at the «Dynamo Kursk «basketball club and coached the Russian «Inventa» and the Polish «Energia.»

Standing position: «Astana» is confidently at the top of the standings, eight games — eight wins. «Aktobe» played ten matches and won only four, which still provides them with third place. This season «Aktobe» has two defeats from «Tobol,» one victory and three losses in games with «Barsi Atyrau,» and three wins and one defeat against «Kaspiy»

Leaders of the rivals: Anton Ponomarev is the leader of the red and white. According to unofficial data, Americans Dalvin Hogue and Davrius Wright performed well, but both Americans have already left the team. In addition, the backbone of Aktobe team consists of Kazakhstanis Alexander Papshiv, Konstantin Dvirny, Vasily Petrishinets, and Sergey Bormatenkov. On the other hand, Russian newcomers played only two games, and Alexander Tikhonin, Boris Nazmutdinov, and Ivan Belousov showed themselves well.

History of games: In the National League, the teams met eight times and once in the Cup of Kazakhstan — our team won convincing victories in all competitions.

Interesting Facts:

• Anton Ponomarev defended the colors of «Astana» last season.

The matches will be held in Nur-Sultan, on the arena of the Saryarka cycle track. The first two and last games start at 19:30, and the Sunday match kicks off at 15:00 Nur-Sultan time.

The entrance to the arena will be carried out only through the Northern entrance (from the side of Orynbor street, opposite the gas station), according to the scheme:



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

Basketball club «Astana» upset the fans of «Aktobe» at the start of the four-match home series. The red and white have three attempts to cheer their fans with a victory before the New Year.

The coaching staff, led by Darko Russo, opted for Americans Jaylen Burford and Antonio Campbell. It is also worth noting that after almost two months of recovering from injury in this match, Vadim Shcherbak entered the court, and a player from the farm team Alizhan Ydyryszhan was announced for the game. The starting five were Jaylen Burford, Antonio Campbell, Oleg Balashov, Robert Pan, and Vadim Shcherbak.

The jump ball remained with our team, and in the first attack, Robert Pan opened his score and the score of the whole match, then Jaylen Barford scored a few more points. However, the opponents did not lag, and after implementing a couple of attacks in a row, they came out ahead. But they did not remain the leaders for long; Antonio Campbell returned the advantage to «Astana», and then the first three in our roster strengthened it. Our subsequent attacks were implemented exclusively by Barford — twice from behind the arc and once after the pass. «Aktobe» did not lag far behind and periodically responded with more shots. After the equator of a quarter, our team went ahead, Ruslan Aitkali, Mark Tikhonenko, Dmitry Gavrilov, and Oleg Balashov recorded points for their set, and our advantage quickly became double-digit. The guests did not cope with such a leap and lagged noticeably behind. At the end of the first quarter, Nikolay Bazhin and Dmitry Gavrilov brought the team points from the free-throw line — 29:16. An equal fight in the second ten minutes did not strongly threaten our comfortable position. Points were earned by Jaylen Barford, Antonio Campbell, and Vadim Shcherbak also recorded their first effective points after almost two months of rehabilitation. After implementing the pass from Dmitry Gavrilov, our advantage exceeded 20 points, which forced the rivals' coaching staff to take a time-out. After that, the difference remained in the region of 20 points until the end of the first half of the game, and Robert Pan, Dmitry Gavrilov, Oleg Balashov, and Nikolay Bazhin brought more effective points in our squad. The opponents managed to narrow their gap a little, but they left for the long break with a deficit of 15 points with the score — 53:38.



After fifteen minutes of rest, Antonio Campbell chalked up another «and one,» Dmitry Gavrilov replenished his account with two points. Rustam Murzagaliev scored the first points in the game — just from behind a three-point arc. Nikolay Bazhin scored two points before the equator of the third period, but the absolute difference in the score did not change much. Then the scales of the game tilted in our direction, and «Astana» began to build up the gap actively. Bazhin scored two more points, another three from the captain flew in, which Aitkali supported with his accurate three-point throw, and then he forced the guests to take another time-out, pushing the ball into the ring in a quick break. The one-minute break didn't slow down the pace of our team's game. Rustam Murzagaliev scored another three-pointer, and Aitkali, in another fast break, again slam-dunked, only now with a 180-degree turn. «Astana» significantly increased its handicap before the final period and, most likely, has already secured a victory for itself — 78:51. After points from Robert Pan, Vadim Shcherbak, and Ruslan Aitkali at the start of the fourth quarter, our team's lead exceeded 30 points. Meanwhile, the opponents could not find their game in any way, and rarely did the throws in their performance reach the goal. In the middle of the period, which was not very productive, Robert Pan scored twice. Our team did not score points for the next three minutes, and the rivals were accurate only once. But then Murzagaliev was precise again from behind the arc, and after him, three attacks in a row remained with our players — Litvinenko, Gavrilov, and Tikhonenko scored two points each. At the end of the match, «Aktobe» scored five points, but in the end, our team won a tremendous victory — 98:59.
 
Most productive:

• «Astana» — all the players of our team, who played on the court, replenished their accounts in this game. The most productive was Antonio Campbell, who scored 13 points in 12 minutes. The most effective — Dmitry Gavrilov 12 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, 1 block shot. Robert Pan scored 11 points today, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals. Jaylen Barford updated his score with 12 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Rustam Murzagaliev earned 12 points, 3 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals. Ruslan Aitkali chalked up 12 points and 2 rebounds. And Oleg Balashov added 3 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals to his 6 points.
• «Aktobe» — Boris Nazmutdinov and Vasily Petrishinets earned 10 points each, and Alexander Tikhonin, Sergey Bormatenkov and Alexander Papshiv earned 9 points each.

Consequences: «Astana» continues to lead the standings, so far without defeat.
 
Upcoming match: The next game of the series with «Aktobe» will take place tomorrow, December 24, in Nur-Sultan at the arena of the cycle track «Saryarka». The match kicks off at 19:30 Nur-Sultan time. The online broadcast of the game 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.