«Astana» and «Barsy Atyrau» played for the fifth time in the current season of the National League. The previous four games were held by «Astana». An interesting meeting was expected today, and yet the preferences were on the side of our capital team.
The course of the game: «Astana» went ahead at the start, earning six points of advantage in less than a couple of minutes of the game, but the guests quickly joined the fight, and by the middle of the first quarter, they were already in the lead with a minimal margin. Until the end of the first game segment, the game went on equal terms, and the opponents replaced each other several times as leaders. «Barsy Atyrau» managed to implement the last attack in the quarter and it was they who won it - 22:25. The leadership of the Atyrau team lasted a couple of minutes in the second period, and then the capital squad took the lead and kept the initiative in their hands until the end of the first half. However, «Astana» could not noticeably break away from the rivals, and yet their small breakthrough made closer to the big break, allowed the capital to finish the first half with a score of 50:42 in their favor. After the side switch, the hosts rushed forward and quickly approached 20 points of advantage before the Atyrau team opened the scoring in the quarter. The difference between the teams kept in this area for the next four minutes. “Barsy” played the part of the gap until the end of the third quarter but lost 15 points before the final ten minutes – 72:57. The Green-Whites needed to improve the situation if they planned to turn the tide of the game, but in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, they failed to do so. For the remaining five minutes before the end of the match, «Astana» was in the lead by 16 points, not a bad attack by the hosts immediately after the equator of the quarter allowed them to finish the match with a confident victory with a score of —
91:68.
Key moment: “Astana” made a breakthrough at the start of the third period, and in the second half of the fourth quarter, with another breakthrough, they secured a convincing victory.
Hero of the match: Skylar Spencer had a great game becoming the most effective player of the match.
Match leaders: Skylar Spencer (16 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks), Ruslan Aitkali (16 points, 6 rebounds), Oleg Balashov (13 points, 2 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals).
Next games: Tomorrow, March 5, «Astana» and «Barsy Atyrau», also in Nur-Sultan at the site of the Saryarka cycle track, will play the second game in the series, which will eventually become their final face-to-face confrontation in the regular season. The game starts at 19:30 capital time. Online broadcast of the match will be available on the main page of our website and on the air of the
«In Sport» TV channel.
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule, and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
