“Astana” starts in the home series against “Aktobe” with a confident victory

The first in the history game between the Presidential Basketball Club “Astana” with the newcomers of the National League “Aktobe” ended with a confident victory of the capital team.

Astana for the first time in history was visited by the Aktobe team, and the teams held their first game in history. Malcolm Hill, as well as Isaiah Whitehead, were among foreign players, who debuted in the first match of the National League.Our team was extremely inhospitable in the first 5 minutes of the game. “Aktobe” during this time were able to score in our basket only once, gaining 2 points, while “Astana” chalked up 16 points, which clearly could be regarded as an answer to the rhetorical question — “Who is the boss here?”. Then our guests, having morally endured the first powerful spurt, finally entered the game and were able to maintain the set pace, and by the end of the first quarter, they reduced the gap and lost only by 9 points. In the second quarter, the capital basketball players again quickly pulled away with a double-digit advantage, but the Aktobe people tried as best they could to restrain «Astana». As a result, the capital squad was not able to make a very powerful breakaway, but by the long break, they were in the relative comfort zone with a score of 43:26.



The start of the third period turned out to be quite effective when in 5 minutes of the game both teams scored mutually 34 points. But the scoring did not reach even 50 percent of this figure. “Aktobe” scored 13 points, while “Astana” had 21 points. The ending of the third quarter was less intense. After 30 minutes of playing time, the scoreboard showed the 24-point advantage of the hosts. In principle, everyone understood that “Aktobe” was unlikely to make a serious comeback in this match, and “Astana” would write down another victory, but in order to formalize it officially, we had to play another 10 minutes. The wards of Emil Rajkovic were not going to give their opponents a chance to turn the tide of the game, and after 5 minutes their lead was increased to 33 points. As a result, it was not difficult for “Astana” to bring the match to a more than confident victory — 92:63 (23:14, 20:12, 25:18, 24:19).

“Aktobe” from the very start missed a powerful attack from “Astana”, but they were able to find the strength and did not let everything go by its own accord. As a result, “Aktobe” lost quite a lot, but at some moments in the game, they tried to impose a struggle and were not afraid to take the initiative into their own hands. “Astana” only strengthened its position on the first line of the standings after this victory, while “Aktobe” remained the fourth after the match.

Most productive:

• “Astana” — Isaiah Whitehead’s debut in the National League was a success, he became the most productive effective player in the match — 19 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists. Malcolm Hill, as always, is up to 14 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals. As for Kazakhstan players, the most productive was the captain — Rustam Murzagaliev (9 points, 6 rebounds).“
• Aktobe” — among our guests, the best were Vladislav Gusak (10 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists) and Konstantin Marzan (7 points, 5 rebounds).

Next match: tomorrow, on October 12, the teams will again meet on the court of the Saryarka cycle track in the second match of the series. Beginning at 19:30 Nur-Sultan time.

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