Basketball club «Astana» seriously upset Kostanay «Tobol» in the first of two away matches of the National League, scored the first hundred of the season and strengthened its position at the top of the standings. Until today's game, both teams were unbeaten, winning both previous games. The coaching staff of a yellow-turquoise team, led by Darko Russo, in addition to the Kazakhstanis and the Russian Mark Tikhonenko, announced Anthony Hickey and Skylar Spencer, who made their debut in the Kazakhstan Championship today.
Our guys won a jump ball at the start of the game and Nikolay Bazhin in the first attack scored from behind the arc, opening the score in the match. The opponents responded with two realized attacks in a row, coming out ahead. Astana's response was not long in coming — Spencer, Marchuk and Hickey all scored. As a result, we managed to seize the initiative and go into a small gap — 6 points. In the middle of the quarter there was a tattered struggle, and the difference in the score remained in the region of 5 points. During this time, Anthony Hickey realized his attempts, and also Vadim Shcherbak and Dmitry Gavrilov scored their first points in the match. Hickey was very active in the first quarter and after his next points, our advantage came close to a double-digit. At the end of the quarter, Mark Tikhonenko earned the first points in the match, after which our captain, Rustam Murzagaliyev, brought points to a two-digit difference with an exact three-pointer and it was him who also scored the last points in the first game segment, having implemented two free throws — 13:26. The second quarter began with a series of mutual mistakes and the first points in this ten-minute period were scored by Murzagaliev almost two and a half minutes later. Then the game became more exciting in terms of performance. Oleg Balashov implemented several of his attacks a couple of times, Mark Tikhonenko scored a couple of points, and Vadim Shcherbak scored in two attacks in a row. During this time, our handicap approached 20 points. “Tobol” was able to catch up a bit, but before the big break, Rustam Murzagaliev acted brilliantly, gaining 8 points in a row and sending Marchuk a magnificent alley-oop. The first half of the game ended with the score — 29:49.
“Astana” started the second half of the game very successfully. The defense game was excellent — the Kostanay rivals managed to score only 5 points, while our team surpassed the result of the rivals by three times, and the advantage reached thirty. During these five minutes Vadim Shcherbak scored two points, Mark Tikhonenko two points and Nikolay Bazhin gained one point. Anthony Hickey brought 10 points. Our team did not slow down, and the defense continued to be an insurmountable obstacle for the opponents. The hosts scored only 8 points in the third period. “Astana” added 11 more points, and as a result outplayed “Tobol” in this period more than three times. Scherbak and Murzagaliev continued gaining points, and Ruslan Aitkali and Robert Pan also brought the first effective points in this match. The capital team outplayed their rivals by almost forty points ten minutes before the end of the match — 37:75, and today there was absolutely no doubt about the victory of Darko Russo's squad. The bench players ended this match, who had a good chance to show themselves, and they did not disappoint. Our performance did not drop at all, and Ruslan Aitkali and Robert Pan increased the score. Andrey Litvinenko, remained the last in our squad without points. But in the fourth minute of the last period, he sent the ball into the basket from beyond the arc, after which all our players distinguished themselves in this game by scored points. Ruslan Aitkali and Robert Pan actively replenished their accounts until the end of the match. And it was Robert who had the last points in the match, having realized a three-pointer, which recorded the most beautiful numbers on the scoreboard —
50:100.
Most productive:
- «Tobol» — Shaim Kuanov became the most productive member of the home team, gaining 12 points and 4 steals. Askar Akhmetzhan scored 11 points and 2 rebounds.
- «Astana» — Anthony Hickey and Rustam Murzagaliev scored 19 points each. Anthony added 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals to this, and Rustam chalked up 4 assists and 2 steals. Ruslan Aytkali had an excellent ending of the match, gaining 14 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals. 13 points 2 rebounds, 2 assists and 3 steals from Vadim Shcherbak. Robert Pan scored 10 points and 3 rebounds, and Mark Tikhonenko earned 6 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.
Consequences: “Astana” single-handedly topped the standings, and “Tobol” kept the second line.
Next match: The second game of the series with “Tobol” will take place tomorrow on October 23, also in Kostanay at the court of the sports and entertainment complex “Kostanay”. The match kicks off at 18:30 Nur-Sultan time. The online broadcast of the game will be available on the main page of our website.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
