Basketball club «Astana» is one step away from the ninth trophy of the Cup of Kazakhstan after a confident victory at the Aktau «Caspiy» in the semifinals of the tournament.
The first points in the game were earned by Nikolay Bazhin, to which the opponent responded with an effective counterattack. But this did not prevent the capital's basketball players from making a breakthrough at the start of the meeting. Maxim Marchuk implemented three attacks in a row, he was supported by Vadim Shcherbak and Nikolay Bazhin with their precise throws. The advantage of “Astana” reached the double-digit figure with lightning speed. In the second half of the first period, the implementation of our team was not so active, but Emil Raikovich's charges were confident in defense. As a result, the Aktau team scored only 8 points in the first period, and another 3 points from Rustam Murzagaliyev and two “threes” from Shcherbak allowed “Astana” to finish the quarter with a decent difference — 21: 8. In the second period, “Caspiy” tried to impose a struggle at the start of the playing segment and held back the onslaught of our guys for a couple of minutes, but then “Astana” again seized the initiative. In the middle of the period, points from Aitkali, Murzagaliev, Bazhin and Marchuk remained unanswered, and our advantage exceeded 20 points. In the second half of the period, “Caspiy” scored only two points and lost the first half of the match with a gap of 26 points — 45:19.
After the side change, “Astana” continued to actively press. After the effective attack by Robert Pan, our team already had 50 points, and the difference between the teams exceeded thirty points. “Caspiy” opened the scoring in the quarter when their gap was already close to forty points. In the second half of the third period, Andrei Litvinenko and Nikolai Bazhin brought benefits to their team. After three periods, the capital's team was leading by almost 40 points — 67:28, and there was absolutely no doubt about the victory of our team. In the first half of the final ten minutes, most of the points for “Astana” were scored by our “big ones”, while from the free throw line — Askar Maidekin, Anton Ponomarev and Robert Pan realized 8 free throws for three. Five minutes before the end of the match, the capital's advantage exceeded 40 points. Ruslan Aitkali threw two three-pointers in a row into the opponents' basket after the equator of the period, and the last 6 points were brought to the team by Askar Maidekin, who brought the capital's team's advantage to 50 points and set the final score in the match — 92:42.
Consequences: “Astana” confidently passed to the final of the Cup of Kazakhstan, and “Caspiy” will compete for bronze medals with “Barsi Atyrau”.
Most productive:
- «Astana» — Seven players of our team scored more than 10 points today. Askar Maidekin became the most productive — 16 points, 5 rebounds and a block shot. Ruslan Aitkali earned 14 points and made 7 rebounds. 13 points 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals from Robert Pan. Nikolay Bazhin scored 12 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. Rustam Murzagaliyev has 11 points, 4 rebounds and 8 assists; 11 points, 3 rebounds and 3 steals from Maxim Marchuk; 11 points 2 rebounds and 3 assists from Vadim Shcherbak.
- «Caspiy» — Roman Marchuk became the most effective among Aktausians — 6 points, 5 rebounds and a block shot; and the most productive Vladimir Kurochkin — 9 points and 3 rebounds.
Next match: Capital basketball players will defend the title of Kazakhstan Cup holders in the final match of the tournament against Kostanay “Tobol”, which will take place on Tuesday, March 16, beginning at 17:30 Moscow time. Online broadcast of the match will be available on the home page of our website and on our YouTube channel.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
