The regular season of the National League of Kazakhstan has come to an end.
The final two home matches of Astana against Barsy Atyrau no longer impacted the standings, so the coaching staff had the opportunity to give playing time to young players of the farm team led by Mikhail Lonshakov.
And if the first match ended with the victory of more experienced guests (67:88), then in the second match, Astana managed to win in a tense and spectacular competition — 80:71.
Valery Simonov became the hero of both matches, and he also celebrated his 21st birthday last Sunday. In two games, he scored 14+18 points and made 3+4 rebounds and 3+7 assists.
Sardal Abashidze also made his contribution to the victory. He became especially effective in the last quarter and earned 8 points and 3 rebounds. In total, he gained 10 points and 8 rebounds for the game.
In the first game, it is worth highlighting Askar Maidekin, who scored a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds). In the second match of experienced basketball players, Ruslan Aitkali (15 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists) and Igor Kanygin (9 points, 8 rebounds, 5 block shots) showed themselves excellently.
Interestingly, the final matches of the National League coincided with the youth championship of the Republic of Kazakhstan among the regions, where Astana-2 and the U-16 team under the leadership of Nikita Galiakhmetov participated. Thus, some players participated in two daily games: Alizhan Ydyryszhan, Mukhammedali Sayranov, Asset Amangeldinov, Askar Serimbet, and Amirali Suleimenov, who plays for the Pavlodar region team.
Alizhan Ydyryszhan showed himself exceptionally well: in the morning of April 17, he scored 19 points in the match of the youth championship, and in the evening, he scored 11 more points — already in the National League. A day later, he also played in both tournaments, scoring 15+6 points.
Before the start of the second game with Barsy Atyrau, Astana General Director Samson Arakelyan presented Master of Sports certificates of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Valery Simonov, Magzhan Sarsengaliyev, and Alexander Orazbekov, who received this sports title thanks to the February victory in the Cup of Kazakhstan.
During the break of both matches, the traditional DOMA DOMA SHOT was held, where on the second day, Roman Marchuk was invited to participate outside the competition. It is worth noting that the player of Astana successfully hit the basket from the center of the field, arousing the audience's admiration.
Astana advanced to the playoffs from first place and will now play in the semi-finals with Almaty's IRBIS.
The home matches of the series will take place this week on April 22-23; both games will start at 17:00. Tickets will go on sale soon.
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule, and match results are published in the
Tournaments section.
