In the second home game of the National League series, the Presidential Basketball Club “Astana” did not leave a chance to the Kostanay “Tobol”.
“Tobol” did not stand against our team in the first game, after a good fight in the first half, they could not maintain the pace in the second one. In this game, just as yesterday, Dushan Ristic and Jeremiah Hill entered the court among foreign players.
The game had started very actively and the teams were quite effective. The score was opened by the players of “Tobol”, but they were ahead only for the first four minutes, and then the capital team confidently seized the initiative. For five minutes of playing time, teams jointly scored 28 points. In the middle of the first quarter, “Astana” made a breakthrough and the handicap of our team for the first time in the match became double-digit. However, the guests were not going to give up so easily and almost completely reduced the gap. The last points in the quarter were scored in favor of our guys, who eventually won the first quarter, although not by a large margin, only by 3 points. The second quarter turned out to be less productive and had a moderate pace. The teams did not make any spurs, but “Astana” firmly maintained its advantage, which was extremely slow, but still increasing. As a result, in 10 minutes, the squad of Emil Rajkovic increased the lead by 5 points, and they went for the long break as leaders, but their advantage could not be regarded secure; only 8 points with a score of 46:38.
The first half of today's match repeated the scenario of the first half of yesterday’s game, and both games were going in an active struggle. But in the second half of yesterday’s game, “Astana” played more confidently and this is exactly what fans expected from it today. The start of the third quarter turned out to be as it should, and the advantage of the capital's team had very quickly doubled. “Tobol” was able to find the strength and stopped our team from increasing the gap further. At the end of the third quarter, “Astana” allowed the rivals to win back a few points, but the difference remained double-digit — 13. This advantage did not give one hundred percent confidence in the victory, and the intrigue was still very vivid. But our players were extremely confident and completely seized control in the game. The gap grew in favor of the capital team and five minutes before the end of the game it exceeded 20 points, which reduced the chances of our rivals to pull this game to a minimum. And at the end of the meeting, “Astana” added even more points, overcame a hundred and won a major victory — 101: 72 (27:24,
19:14, 26:21, 29:13).
Thus, the capital team, after a victorious home series against “Tobol» practically secured an early first place in the regular season, and Kostanay team after today's defeat went down to the third line of the standings, leaving «Barsy Atyrau» ahead.
Most productive:
- “Astana” - Once again, Dushan Ristic became the MVP of the match, having a double-double — 21 points and 11 rebounds, also the center has 4 assists on his account. The captain of the team Rustam Murzagaliev scored 11 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists in today's match, as well as Alexander Zhigulin who had 15 points and 6 rebounds.
- “Tobol” - Today, Anton Bykov became the driving force of the Kostanay team — 20 points + 4 rebounds and Pavel Ilyin — 17 points + 4 rebounds.
Next match: on December 15, “Astana” will go to Moscow, where it will hold the match in VTB United League with CSKA, and the capital team will play the next National League games after the New Year’s holidays
on January 17 and 18 in the away games against Kostanay “Tobol”.
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, the schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
