Basketball club «Astana» arrived in Lithuania for the pre-season training camp, during which they will play a number of friendly matches. The Lithuanian «Juventus» from the city of Utena became the first rival of our team.
«Juventus» is a regular participant in the main Lithuanian basketball league and the King Mindaugas Cup. In addition, throughout their history they have participated in the Baltic League, the European Cup and the European Champions League. Last season they finished fourth in the Lithuanian league and repeated their best result in the King Mindaugas Cup by winning bronze medals. As for the personal games with Astana, the Lithuanian and Kazakhstani team did not meet at any official tournaments, but before that they had five friendly matches. One in 2015, two in 2016 and two in 2017. At the moment, the lithuanian team ahead — 3:2.
This game was the first, both for the new coach Darko Russo, and for many players in the Kazakh team. All the players of «Astana» came together for the first time and only managed to spend a couple of days on the court together, so the upcoming friendly matches will be first try for the newly created . But let's get back to the game itself. Our opponents started the match very confidently, while our team had problems at the start, both in defense and in attack. In the first five minutes, “Astana” scored only 5 points and conceded 18. Until the end of the first quarter, the game seemed to go on more equal terms, but this did not particularly affect the difference in the score — 17:29. The beginning of the second period also remained with the Lithuanians, who were able to strengthen their positions up to +20. By the long break, Darko Russo's squad slightly reduced the gap, but after 20 minutes of the game they were losing 15 points — 35:50. After a long break, “Juventus” continued to dominated and rather quickly regained the advantage of 20 points. Until the end of the third period, the game went on an equal footing, and 20 points of the advantage of “Juventus” did not disappear anywhere — 51:71. The final quarter started off at a slower pace. “Astana” in five minutes scored only 5 points, and the Lithuanians increased their score by only 8. But if by the end of the match “Juventus” improved their performance, gaining a total of 20 points over the period, then our guys have realized only 2 more points. As a result, “Juventus” won a major victory with a score of 58:91.
Astana's first preseason game was not so successful if you look at the score. But this is a friendly game, especially since the team just got together, and, most importantly, the new coach saw the problems that need to be solved and the direction to move forward. If you took a glance at the statistics, then it would be clear that today the Lithuanians attacked more confidently, especially from behind the arc, and also collected more rebounds and made fewer losses. Maxim Marchuk scored the most points today — 12, and in his debut for “Astana” Skylar Spencer collected 6 rebounds and scored 10 points. Captain Rustam Murzagaliev also scored 10 points.
The statistical report of the match is available
here.
Schedule and results of pre-season friendly matches of PBC «Astana»:
- September 9 — Juventus, Utena — 58:91
- September 11 -» Labas Gas», Prienai
- September 17 — «CBet», Jonava
- September 18 — «VEF», Riga
Also, on September 13 and 14, our guys will take part in the pre-season tournament for the Raimundo Sarguno Cup in the city of Panevezys. On the first day in the semifinals they will play with the «Ogre» team, and in the match for the main trophy or third place they will be opposed either by the tournament hosts «Lietkabelis» or the Estonian team «Parnu».
