«Astana» played their first home match of 2024 in the United VTB League. «PARMA» was their opponent.
Despite the fact that the Kazakhstani club took the initiative from the very beginning and won the first three quarters, the final segment turned out to be unsuccessful for Oleg Kiselev's team. Eventually, the Perm team equalized the score in the last seconds and took the game to overtime.
In the five-minute overtime, the visitors were stronger, with the final score being 76:86.
For «Astana,» Markell Johnson (18 points, 10 assists), Royce Hamm (18 points, 12 rebounds), Devin Davis (14 points, 12 rebounds), and Carvel Anderson (12 points) particularly stood out.
It's also worth noting that this match marked the debut for Vasilije Pušica in the «Astana» team – he played under number 8.
«I want to congratulate my team. We are going through a tough period when every game is challenging, such as matches against 'Uralmash' and 'Zenit', and today it was not easy from the start. 'Astana' plays very well; we saw how they fought against 'Loko': there was physical contact and mobility, and almost until the last minutes, nothing was clear. We analyzed»'Astana,» a team endowed with highly skilled and formidable players. They exhibit a sharp offensive strategy from the perimeter, and Hamm is notably diligent and effective in his rebounding efforts. They continue to fight for the top six. Therefore, we understood that the game would be uncompromising on both sides and that «Astana» would try to immediately take advantage and create a point difference, as it was in the first quarter. We faced some challenges initially; our start was slower than expected, our response to their shooters was delayed, and we allowed too many open shot opportunities. But then we talked with the guys during the break, and 8:20 in the fourth quarter – that's the response. In the fourth quarter and in overtime, we showed the defense we preach. We played defense smartly, controlled the snipers and rebounds, eventually won the rebound, and made fewer mistakes,» noted PARMA's head coach Evgeny Pashutin after the match.
Now «Astana» is set to travel to Yekaterinburg – the match against «Uralmash» will take place on January 14th.
