Congratulations to all the fans of the basketball club «Astana» on the long-awaited victory! Today our guys gave their best and achieved success in a difficult but exciting home game against «Zielona Gora»! The team also played this match without head coach Emil Rajkovic and coaches Marko Velichkovich and Yevgeny Isakov, who are getting better but are still in quarantine. The last time, the duties of the head coach were also performed by Sasho Tadorovski, and the coach of our academy, Dejan Parezhanin, helped him again. Also, players Michael Thompson and Adonis Thomas were not included in the roster in addition to Eric Buckner, who was injured in the previous match and watched the game from the stands.
The jump ball was won by Askar Maidekin, and in the very first attack, our team opened the score in the match. Jeremiah Hill earned the right to free kicks, which he successfully coped with. The guests did not keep themselves waiting for an answer and quickly equalized the score. Hill was again accurate from the penalty line, again bringing “Astana” forward, after which “Zielona Gora” was the first to realize a long-range shot and came forward. After the points performed by Askar Maidekin and Nikolay Bazhin, the score was again equal. The middle of the first period was better for the Poles, who made a spurt of +6. Askar Maidekin implemented two attacks in a row and the difference was reduced to two points. Until the end of the period “Astana” tried to catch up with rivals: Ojars Silins was the first from our team to score a three-pointer, and Ruslan Aitkali also opened his personal score in this game, but our guys could not catch up with the opponents in this quarter — 20:23. At the start of the second ten minutes, Hill and Aitkali realized a spectacular alley-up, and Silins was accurate from beyond the arc, but «Astana» was still lagging behind. Then Bazhin reduced the gap to two points, Maidekin equalized the score, and Hill earned the first points in the match from a long distance and again brought our team forward. The guests once again managed to tip the scales in their favor, but Ojars Silins returned the balance to the game. In the last three minutes of the first half of the game, the teams were able to implement three attacks, two of which were fruitful, Rustam Murzagaliev and Ruslan Aitkali distinguished themselves. Thanks to this, “Astana” went for a long break with a slight advantage — 39:37.
After the changeover, Jeremiah converted another three-pointer and then gave an assist to Maxim Marchuk's alley-up. The rivals tried to catch up with our team, but Nikolay Bazhin and Maxim Marchuk, with their scoring points, did not allow the guests to catch up with “Astana”. In the middle of the third period, Hill and Silins contributed to the advantage of the Kazakh team. Nevertheless, “Zielona Gora” did not allow the yellow-turquoise team to increase their lead and at some point they managed to seize the initiative. They completely won back their gap and pulled away. Our guys reacted quickly and took counter-measures — Maksim Marchuk equalized the score, and Hill put »Astana» into the lead. However, the last effective attack in the third period remained with our rivals, who equalized the score before the final quarter — 61:61. The start of the final quarter was kicked off by our captain — Rustam Murzagaliev made a three-pointer attempt, and Dmitry Gavrilov scored his first points from the penalty line, thus the advantage of our team reached five points. But the opponent was not going to stop, and two of the three were proof of that — “Zielona Gora” came out ahead. The middle of the period passed in the struggle for leadership and the teams swapped a couple of times in the role of the leader, and the score became equal more than once. In this fight, Jeremiah Hill, Nikolay Bazhin, and Ojars Silins were marked with effective points in our team. After that, perhaps, the key moments in the game took place. First, Hill scored a three-pointer, and then one of the leaders of “Zielona Gora” and ex-player of “Astana” Jeffrey Grosell received the fifth foul and watched the match from the bench for the last three and a half minutes. After that Maidekin and Marchuk earned points and brought the difference to six points three minutes before the final buzzer. The coaching staff of the rivals spent an effective time-out and the guests from Poland reduced the gap to one point in a minute, greatly exacerbating the intrigue. Maxim Marchuk made a very important attempt in the pass. Then the teams made several mistakes, and less than a minute before the end the difference was only two points. Without Grosell, the opponents did not play well in attack and they had to commit tactical fouls and Jeremiah Hill got in the fire line, who had scored 6 free throws out of 10 before. But Hill did not allow this to happen again, having realized all 4 of his attempts at the end of the match, and setting the final score — 88:82.
Consequences: The victory in this meeting was important for “Zielona Gora”, and not only our fans, but also the fans of “Khimki” were rooting for “Astana” in this game. Our team saved Khimki's chance for the result with their victory. A new sixth place in the regular season, and now «Khimki» have to win their home game against «Avtodor» on Sunday to move the Polish squad from sixth place, and the Poles can only wait, as they played all their games in the regular season. “Astana” not only helped “Khimki” but also retained a chance to rise one line higher, as they caught up with “Yenisei” in points and lose only by the results of the personal games. And now, in order to rise to the 11th final line, our team needs to win “Tsmoki-Minsk”, but also so that “Yenisei” should lose to “Kalev”.
Most productive:
- «Astana» — the hero of the match was Jeremiah Hill, who earned a double-double in 38 minutes on the court — 26 points, 7 rebounds, 11 assists, and made a block-shot. Nikolay Bazhin became another leader of our team in the match — 16 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals. Ojars Silins demonstrated a good game — 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block shot. Maxim Marchuk has 10 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. And Askar Maidekin in this game scored 9 points, 4 rebounds. 2 assists, and had 2 block shots.
- «Zielona Gora» — the leaders of the rivals showed a good game today. Rolands Freimanis scored 21 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 3 block shots, and Jeffrey Grosell, although he did not finish the match, managed to score 16 points and 4 rebounds.
Acting head coach of «Astana» — Sasho Todorovski:
- Finally, we have achieved a victory — today we deserve it. Congratulations to the team. All players gave their best and did their best on the court. I would also like to note that our young players got more playing time. I hope that at the next game our coaching staff will be in full force.
«Zielona Gora» head coach — Jean Tabak:
- Congratulations to «Astana» on the victory. From the very beginning, they played with more energy and were ahead of us. To be honest, I have no explanation why we play like this in the last VTB League games. Today we did not go to the court with the right attitude.
Next match: The capital team will play the final match of the VTB United League regular championship on Sunday 25 April at home against the Belarusian team Tsmoki Minsk, and this game will be the last in the entire season of this tournament for Astana.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule, and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
