In the decisive game for the main trophy of the tournament for the Cup of Kazakhstan, the team of the basketball club «Astana» won a landslide victory over the Kostanay «Tobol».
Our team started the match unsuccessfully, having missed the rapid spurt of the rivals — 0:10. Rustam Murzagaliev scored the first points on the account of “Astana” at the end of the third minute, then Anton Ponomarev realized “and one”. Nevertheless, Kostanay did not stop and continued to confidently play their game. Robert Pan initiated the lead by scoring 7 points, and Anton Ponomarev supported his breakthrough, reducing the backlog of Astana to a minimum. Maksim Marchuk had a final say with two accurate free throws, one of which equalized the score, and the second brought “Astana” ahead — 19:18. At the start of the second period, Kostanay team regained their leadership role. Ruslan Aitkali successfully stopped the rivals' attempt to reach advantage, and Nikolay Bazhin equalized the score. The struggle for leadership continued until the middle of the period. The game pattern changed significantly when our guys focused on defense and blocked the approaches to their ring. Our opponents did not manage to score points before the big break, and the difference by the end of the first half of the match reached 14 points with a score of 44:30.
In the third period, “Astana” continued to ipuall away from the rivals. At the quarter start, Askar Maidekin and Vadim Shcherbak earned effective points, and Rustam Murzagaliev helped the capital's team's advantage to cross the 20-point line. Players of “Tobol” started to score only closer to the equator of the period, but “Astana” responded to each effective attack with their own. At the end of the period Kostanay won back a little, but Nikolay Bazhin returned the advantage of +20 points to our team in the last seconds — 68:47. The advantage was comfortable and the Cup was practically in our pocket, we only had to confidently spend the last ten minutes of the match and not let the opponents win back. In the fourth quarter Kostanay tried to attack from a long distance and converted three three-pointers as opposed to two points from Anton Ponomarev. Emil Rajkovic was forced to take a time-out in order to make adjustments to the game of his players and to bring down the pace of «Tobol», and it worked 100%. First of all, defense started to serve its purpose again, and points from Nikolay Bazhin, Maxim Marchuk and Anton Ponomarev returned us to +20 advantage. Time worked for our team and the opponents had fewer and fewer chances to turn the tide of the game. Five minutes before the final buzzer, the difference of twenty points remained and it became finally clear that the victory was secured for our team. The last points for “Astana” in this match were scored by Robert Pan and Vadim Shcherbak, and the game ended with the final score — 92:66.
Most productive:
- Astana — four players from the capital have exceeded ten-point mark today. Anton Ponomarev became the most productive 19 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and a block shot. Robert Pan is the most effective player in the match — 17 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and a block shot. Maxim Marchuk today scored 14 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and a block shot. Rustam Murzagaliyev has 13 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. And Nikolay Bazhin scored 7 points, 6 rebounds and 2 assists
- “Tobol” — Pavel Ilyin became the best among Kostanay players today 21 points and 3 rebounds, Daniil Seleznev and Rustam Valiev scored ten points each.
Consequences: «Astana» is a nine-time winner of the Kazakhstan Cup, and two players of our team — Robert Pan and Maxim Marchuk entered the symbolic five of the best players of the tournament.
Next match: Upon returning home, our team will have very little time to celebrate the victory, since this weekend on March 21, the yellow-turquoise will have to face the Belarusian «Tsmoki Minsk» on the road within the framework of the VTB United League.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
