Basketball club «Astana» consolidated their success in Kostanay, beating the local «Tobol» in the second game of the away series and topped the standings. The day before, our team defeated Kostanay and today the capital's team was also a clear favorite. In this match roster, Darko Russo did not make any changes compared to the previous game.
Skylar Spencer won the jumping ball, and in the first attack Vadim Shcherbak scored two points. Skylar next scored his two points in the match. It was not long before the rivals opened their score in this game, but as it turned out, these were their only points in the first half of the period, while our players implemented their attacks with enviable regularity. Spencer and Shcherbak completed successfully their attempts from the game, and Nikolai Bazhin also scored twice. The difference became double-digit and the coaching staff of the opponents had to take an early time-out. In the middle of the quarter, both teams missed their throws, and then Anthony Hickey scored the first three-pointer of the match. The opponent got off the ground and began to gradually gain points. Until the end of the match, only our Americans — Hickey and Spencer — distinguished themselves with accurate attempts. Our team played the first ten minutes of the match very confidently — 10:24. Rustam Murzagaliev started the second quarter with an accurate three-pointer, and Skylar Spencer scored two points as well. After that, there was a small goalless pause in our game. The opponents were able to narrow the gap a little, but still the double-digit difference remained. Dmitry Gavrilov interrupted the scoring pause in the middle of the period, spearheading the attack twice in a row. Following his first points in the match, Oleg Balashov was accurate, and the end of the first half remained with our captain — Rustam Murzagaliev. In general, the period passed in a fairly equal fight, and our advantage increased by only two points — 25:41.
For five minutes of the game after a long break, only our foreign players Skylar Spencer and Mark Tikhonenko scored points for “Astana”, and Anthony Hickey especially distinguished himself. But during the same time, “Tobol” also acted successfully. The difference did not change at all and the teams were still divided by 16 points in the middle of the third period. But until the end of this period, “Tobol” was lagging behind our team with only two points in five minutes. Among the guests, Rustam Murzagaliev, Anthony Hickey, Skylar Spencer, Mark Tikhonenko and Dmitry Gavrilov replenished their personal accounts, and before the final quarter, Maxim Marchuk scored his first points in the match. “Astana”, in fact, secured a victory in this game and the score on the scoreboard at the end of thirty minutes of the game were proof of this — 37:66. At the start of the fourth quarter, only the players of “Astana”, or rather Dmitry Gavrilov, Mark Tikhonenko and Ruslan Aitkali, managed to score accurate attempts. “Tobol” opened its account in this quarter only after a little more than three minutes, and the difference was already more than thirty points. In the middle of the quarter, Ruslan Aitkali made two three-point shots, Balashov was accurate and Robert Pan scored the first points. Andrei Litvinenko opened his personal account in the match two and a half minutes before the end, and after his accurate three-pointer and our advantage reached forty points. At the end of the match, the teams exchanged a couple of effective attacks, and Mark Tikhonenko set the final score in the match with a long-range accurate throw —
54:94.
Most productive:
- «Tobol» — Shaim Kuanov again became the best player in the Kostanay squad — 14 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals. Anton Bykov scored 12 points and 7 rebounds.
- «Astana» — Anthony Hickey repeated his result and scored 19 points today, while chalked up 2 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. Skylar Spencer scored his first double-double in the National League with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 5 block shots. 12 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 block shot from Rustam Murzagaliev. Mark Tikhonenko scored 9 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals. Oleg Balashov — 10 points and 3 assists, while Ruslan Aitkali has 8 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block shot.
Consequences: “Astana” strengthened in the leaders of the National League, and “Tobol” dropped to the third position.
Next match: Upon returning home, our guys will begin preparations for the next away series of matches of the National League, this time they will visit the Aktau «Kaspiy», which will be held on October 31 and November 1.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
