Basketball club «Astana» held the final match against «Tobol» in the regular season of the National League. The capital team confidently won all the previous matches with the Kostanay team this season, including the match the day before, so today it was a clear favorite, and justified this title from the very beginning of the match, eventually scoring another major victory. Today, the coaching staff led by Darko Russo chose in favor of Anthony Hickey and Antonio Campbell from the American players. But the starting five consisted exclusively of Kazakh players — Nikolai Bazhin, Rustam Murzagaliev, Dmitry Gavrilov, Maxim Marchuk, and Oleg Balashov.
Even though the jumping ball was won by the opponents, our players managed to intercept the ball and in our first attack, Maxim Marchuk opened the score from behind the arc. In general, the start of the game turned out exclusively in favor of our team. Tobol could not score points for more than two minutes, and in the starting unrequited spurt as part of our team, Maxim Marchuk was the main star, scoring 10 points and 2 points scored by Dmitry Gavrilov. After our opponent opened the score in the game, our advantage growth slowed down, but still continued to increase. Along with Marchuk and Gavrilov, in the first half of the first quarter, Rustam Murzagaliev and Oleg Balashov opened their accounts in this match, and by the middle of the period, “Astana” was leading by 15 points. Until the end of the quarter, Maxim Marchuk and Dmitry Gavrilov again gained more points, as well as Rustam Murzagaliyev updated his score and Nikolai Bazhin, Ruslan Aitkali and Robert Pan also scored the first points in the match, and our team over this time crossed the line of twenty points advantage - 13:34. The second quarter was much less productive for our team than the first. The start of the period was very good — Robert Pan and Ruslan Aitkali were active under the opponents' basket and helped well in defense. “Tobol” scored its first points in this period only closer to the equator of the quarter, when it was already losing more than thirty points, but in the second half of the quarter, the Kostanay team took advantage of a lull in our team and slightly tightened their positions. As a result, Pan and Aitkali scored 6 points each in the second period, and Andrey Litvinenko also scored two points. But «Astana» won this quarter too, adding 4 points to its lead – 23:48.
The rest that “Astana” did not score enough in the second period, our players earned in the third ten-minute period and it is worth noting that the Americans Anthony Hickey and Antonio Campbell entered the court in this game only in the second half and were immediately productive on the court. So in a couple of minutes, Anthony Hickey scored 6 points, Antonio Campbell scored three points and Maxim Marchuk scored two. The difference of our team again exceeded thirty points. Also, until the middle of the third period, Maxim Marchuk scored two more points, and Mark Tikhonenko gained his first points in the game with an accurate throw from behind the arc. Antonio Campbell was active after the equator of the period and it was he who brought our advantage to forty points, having implemented attacks from an average distance twice in a row. In addition, Ruslan Aitkali and Oleg Balashov earned 3 points before the final quarter. Our team was confidently leading ten minutes before the end of the match with a score of 32:73. In the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, there was a rather tense competition, and the teams actively exchanged the attacks, but this did not greatly affect our lead, which gradually increased. So during this time, Anthony Hickey and Antonio Campbell significantly updated their stats on points scored, and Rustam Murzagaliyev also earned 3 points. Already by the equator of the period, our team led by 48 points. It was not so easy for «Astana» to bring the advantage to fifty points, and it took some extra efforts from Maxim Marchuk, Antonio Campbell, and Anthony Hickey, and it was Maxim who brought the advantage to fifty 3 minutes before the end. A minute later, after three points from Marchuk, our score exceeded one hundred points. Until the end of the match, Mark Tikhonenko and Rustam Murzagaliev added even more points for our team, and as a result, “Astana” outplayed its rivals more than twice –
50:105.
Most scoring:
- «Tobol» — Anton Bykov again became the most effective among the opponents, who scored a double-double — 13 points, 11 rebounds. Pavel Ilyin also scored 13 points and added 2 assists and 2 interceptions.
- «Astana» — Maksim Marchuk spent a little over thirty minutes on the court today and during this time scored 25 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 5 steals. Anthony Hickey played just over thirteen minutes but scored 14 points, 2 rebounds, 8 assists, and 4 steals. Antonio Campbell also scored 14 points, as well as 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals. Rustam Murzagaliyev earned 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists. And Ruslan Aitkali scored 11 points.
Consequences: “Astana” confidently occupies the first line, and “Tobol”, although in the penultimate place, still has the most defeats in the table.
Next match: Further, according to the plan, the squad of Darko Russo will host «Barsy Atyrau» within the framework of the National League. The matches are scheduled for January 26 and 27 in the city of Nur-Sultan at the arena of the Saryrak cycle track.
Detailed information about the tournament, tournament tables, schedule, and results of matches are published in the
Tournaments section.
