The New Year holidays are behind us, and today Astana plays the first match in the January home series in the VTB United League.

The opponent of Oleg Kiselev's team this time is Samara. We have already said that this club was founded in 1976 on the initiative of the Honored Coach of the USSR Genrikh Primatov in the city, then called Kuibyshev. At the beginning of its journey, the team was called «Builder».

Since 2003, Samara has focused on the development of the youth direction, and in the summer of 2012 the professional status was returned to the club. The team twice became the champion of the Super League (seasons 2018/19 and 2020/21) and won the Russian Cup twice (seasons 2019/20 and 2021/22). This season in the VTB United League is the club's debut.

As a player, Astana head coach Oleg Kiselev played for Samara in the 1998/99 and 2000/02 seasons. And in 2006-2009, the head coach of the Russian club was the ex-general director of Astana, Olympic champion Valery Tikhonenko.



In Samara, it is especially worth highlighting such a player as Marcos Knight (16.1 points per game, 4.9 rebounds per game and 4 assists per game).

The opponent of the Kazakhs is 9th in the League standings with 6 wins and 12 losses, and the first meeting between our teams ended with a score of 93:58 in favor of Samara.



The game will be held at the Saryarka cycle track and will start at 20:00. Tickets are on sale at Zakazbiletov.kz.

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

«Astana» held the first match in 2023, hosting Samara at the Saryarka cycle track.

The game ended with the guests' victory with a score of 51:99.

Samara scored James Ennis (19 points), Marcos Knight (18 points), Jordan Theodore (13 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists), and KC Rivers (13 points). As for the Kazakh team, Daniil Aksenov (16 points) and Michael Myers (13 points, 7 rebounds) can be distinguished.
 
«Congratulations to my players on the win. We had a tough time, so an excellent win for confidence because there was a break, we gave the players a little rest, and now we could finally resume practicing, unlike in December, when we had only four practices until the 22nd. I hope this played its role. The players took the match seriously, and by the second half, although the difference was big, they continued to play with full dedication, which is quite pleasing,» said Sergey Bazarevich, head coach of Samara, after the game.

Astana will play the next match on January 7, when it will play against the reigning champions, St. Petersburg Zenit, at home. The game will start at 15:00. Tickets are on sale at  Zakazbiletov.kz.

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