The away game of the basketball club «Astana» with «Barsy Atyrau» began with a heated confrontation in the first half of the match, but after a long break, our guys took the initiative into their hands and brought the game to a victorious end. In Atyrau, Emil Rajkovic, released Devin Marble and Michael Thompson to the court along with the Kazakh squad.
The scoring in this game was opened by Anton Ponomarev, but “Barsy Atyrau” were ready to play and quickly took the lead. Devin Marble made the score even, and then he brought our team forward, but as it turned out, not for long. The home team made up for lost time immediately after the equator of the first quarter. The struggle did not subside on the court for a minute and the intrigue only increased. Green-white ones showed good play and again and again pulled ahead, but they did not have a significant advantage. “Astana” played the role of catch-up, and our captain — Rustam Murzagaliyev twice evened the score and the second time in the last seconds of the first period. Thus, the quarter ended with an equal score — 20:20. In the second period, the same struggle took place as in the first one. “Barsy” immediately took the lead, but Murzagaliev again equalized the score, and Maxim Marchuk brought the capital's team forward. There was no question of gaining a substantial advantage, and by the middle of the second quarter, the score was once again equal. The last five minutes of the first half of the match, our team again tried on the role of catch-ups and were able to achieve what they wanted only in the last seconds before leaving for the long break when Anton Ponomarev scored three and levelled the score — 39:39.
The first half showed that both teams are only playing to win and the struggle for the initiative will continue, but as it turned out, not for long. First, Michael Thompson neutralized the backlog of the capital team, and then our rivals were able to close a small gap in our squad's favour. Once again, “Astana” was brought forward by Michael Thompson. “Barsy Atyrau” at first kept a little behind, but then once again they failed to equalize, and the initiative gradually passed to our team. Devin Marble for the first time in this game brought the difference in the score between the teams to double digits. As a result, after thirty minutes of the game “Astana” was in the lead, but it was too early to call our advantage strong — 55:67. In the fourth quarter, the capital team finally broke the hosts, whose game was completely lost. In the first five minutes, “Barsy Atyrau” failed to score points, and “Astana”, on the contrary, took initiative and more than doubled their advantage. Five minutes before the final buzzer of the match, our team won 24 points and the outcome of the match, in fact, was a predicted. Our rivals scored the first points in the final quarter only three minutes before the end of the match, and at the same time, they were already hopelessly losing. As a result, the hosts managed to score just four points in the last ten minutes and suffered a major defeat — 59:89.
Most productive:
- «Barsy Atyrau» — the Americans Ryan Cook and Edward Carter III became the most productive in “Barsy Atyrau», having scored 15 points each.
- «Astana» — Devin Marble became the most effective and efficient — 23 points, 4 rebounds and 5 steals. Michael Thompson chalked up 14 points, 3 rebounds and steals and 6 assists. Robert Pan scored 10 points, while Dmitry Gavrilov has 6 points and 8 rebounds today.
Consequences: for “Astana” the season continues without defeats and our team is at the top of the standings, and “Barsy”, having suffered this defeat, lost their position to “Almaty Legion” and are now on the third line.
Next match: the second game of the series with “Barsy Atyrau” will take place tomorrow, November 30, also in Atyrau at the court of the sports complex “Jysan Arena”. The match starts at 18:00 Astana time.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
