VTB United league 2019/2020
Avtodor
Saratov
VTB United League, Regular season
16.11.2019, 19:00 Sa
Arena: SP «Crystall» (Saratov)
90:85
Main time
20:19 27:23 15:23 28:20
Game number: RS-41
Spectators: 1754
Astana
Astana

«Astana» goes to Saratov to play with «Avtodor»

13.11.2019, 10:00    Просмотров: 316
Источник: Press service
Автор:
After the successful home series of matches, «Astana» Presidential Basketball Club departs to Saratov, where on November 16 they will play with the local «Avtodor». In the upcoming match, our team has good chances to strengthen its position in the standings and win the first away victory in the VTB United League season.

«Avtodor» - is a Russian professional men's basketball club from the city of Saratov, founded in 1960.

Achievements:
  • Silver medalist of the championship of Russia — 1993/1994, 1996/1997, 1997/1998, 1998/1999
  • Bronze medalist of the Championship of Russia — 1995/1996
  • Semifinalist of the European Cup — 1997/1998
  • Super League Champion A — 1996/1997, 1997/1998
  • Super League Champion B — 2008/2009
  • Super League Champion — 2013/2014
  • Super League Bronze Medalist — 2012/2013

The head coach of the Saratov team is a well-known Russian specialist, and in the past, the player is Evgeniy Pashutin. Pashutin heads the team for several seasons in a row. In the 2017/2018 season, he replaced the Italian Andrea Mazzona as head coach. The next season, Pashutin began the season in the Italian “Kant”, but very quickly returned to “Avtodor”, where he replaced Sergei Mokin. This season, Eugeniy heads the coaching staff of “Avtodor” from the very beginning of the season. It is also worth noting that Yevgeniy Pashutin in his career has headed the coaching staff of Spartak (St. Petersburg), Lokomotiv-Kuban, UNICS and CSKA, as well as led the Russian men's team, and now at the same time leads the Russian team U-20. The current Saratov coach started in «Avtodor»  back in 1992, then he played 6 seasons for this team. In addition, he managed to play  for «Spartak» in Leningrad, back in the USSR, in «Dynamo» team — Moscow, in UNICS and CSKA, as well as the Israeli «Maccabi». Yevgeniy Pashutin became the silver medalist of the world as a player, the bronze medalist of Europe, the champion of Russia, 6-time silver medalist of Russia. As a coach, he was the champion of Russia, the champion of VTB United League, twice the winner of the European Cup, and the Russian Cup.

Looking back at the last season, we can confidently say that the main losses of the Saratov team were the American players — Tre Golden, Perrin Buford and David Kravish. In general, all the imports left the team in the offseason, two more Americans Anthony Airland and DJ Newbill, as well as Serb Boris Savovic. And of the Russians who played last season to the end, Artem Zabelin left the team. In the offseason, only four players extended the contract with the team, and all of them are Russians: veteran Andrey Sepelev, who, although he is in a roster, has played only one match in the United League and only a couple of minutes in the season 2015/2016. And also three young homegrown players — Anton Kvitkovsky, Alexander Petenev, and Nikita Mikhailovskiy.

The whole team this season is based on newcomers. «Avtodor» currently has 5 Americans in its arsenal. A quick review of Reyvonte Rice, who left the team after two opening games of the season. Guard Markel Starks played in Australia and Puerto Rico, and in Europe managed to play in the championships of Italy, Germany, Greece, Turkey, and Poland; this season he was in the starting five in all five games of the Saratov team. Forward Elgin Cook played in Germany and Croatia. An experienced guard Orlando Johnson, who played wherever possible, but could not stay in the NBA, but held matches for teams like “Indiana Pacers”, “Sacramento Kings”, “Phoenix Suns” and “New Orleans Pelicans”, in Europe, Ordando played in Spain and Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Asia, he played in the Philippines, China, and Libya. He is also not new to VTB United League — in the 2016/2017 season, he spent 8 matches for UNICS. So, Elgin and Orlando also played in all the games of “Avtodor”. Center Isaiah Hicks, who played in the NBA for the “New York Knicks,” has played in the last two matches of the team. A guard Tobin Carberry while playing exclusively in the North European countries, Iceland, Finland and Denmark, had become the champion of Denmark, is in the roster of the team but he has not played yet. The French center Muhamadou Zhait, who played mainly in France but joined the Saratov team after Italy, played all five past Avtodor games. Nigerian guard Michael Ume once played for professional teams in Germany, Spain, Italy, Israel, and Poland, participated in the last two games of the Saratov team. As for the Latvian shooting guard Kaspars Berzins, who played in Latvia, Spain, and Russia, and who is not a novice to the VTB United League, has only played two games for «Avtodor» and the last time he played in a match with CSKA. Among the Russians who play for «Avtodor» this season, besides those who re-signed the contract during the offseason, are young Alexey Babushkin, Yegor Bestuzhev, and Roman Balandin.
 

History of games: “Astana” and “Avtodor” have met 13 times. The first game was held in the distant season 2013/2014 as part of the Nesterov Cup, and then the Saratov team turned out to be stronger. Only in the next season, Avtodor began to participate in Eurochallange, but in the same season, in addition to the VTB League, our team and the squad from Saratov played twice in the Eurochallenge. In total, «Astana» won 7 matches and lost 6 out of 13 games, and in the VTB United League, the score was 6: 4 in favor of our guys.

Tournament position: “Astana” held three difficult home games, which ended in victory in the intense endings, and the team of Emil Rajkovic lost both away games. As a result, in the standings, the capital team has the same number of points and percentages as «Loko»,» Nizhny» and «Yenisei», but in terms of additional indicators, it proudly stands third, having only CSKA and Khimki ahead of them. “Avtodor” in the five matches has celebrated only one victory and occupies only the 11th line of the tournament table.

Interesting facts:
  • “Avtodor” is the very team that scored the highest number of points against “Astana” and it was in the season 2015/2016, then the Saratov team scored 131 points in the first match of the season, and 132 in the second, which is the worst performance for “Astana” in the entire history of VTB United League.
  • The current player of “Astana” — Coti Clarke in the season 2017/2018 played for “Avtodor” and became the most effective player in the entire VTB United League Championship.

The match will take place on Saturday on November 16 in Saratov in the arena of the Sports Palace «Crystal», beginning at 19:00 Nur-Sultan time. Online broadcast of the match will be available on our website in the Match Center section.

Detailed information about the tournament, standings, schedule and match results are published in the Tournaments section.

Astana's visit to Saratov was not successful

17.11.2019, 10:00    Просмотров: 406
Источник: Press service
Автор:
The presidential basketball club “Astana” was one step away from the first away victory in the VTB United League, but lost to the Saratov «Avtodor” at the end of the game.

It is worth mentioning that Isaiah Whitehead injured the ankle and was unable to join his team in Saratov. This affected the outcome of the match because Isaiah in previous games had proved that he was one of the leaders and was very beneficial to the team.

“Astana” started very well with two exact three-pointers and only after that the hosts were able to open a score. But the players from Saratov did not give in, and they quickly neutralized the advantage of our team, reducing their gap to a minimum, and then evened the score. The Kazakhstan team was in the lead for most of the first quarter, but the team gad spent the last minutes in a bitter struggle, constantly changing each other in the role of leader. Nevertheless, the first 10 minutes ended with the hosts' advantage- 20:19. Our teams had a successful start of the second quarter, who not only took the lead but also pulled away from their rivals. The hosts did everything to stop our team, and they were able to prevent “Astana” from further increasing the advantage. The Kazakhstan team held handicap until the middle of the quarter, and then the wards of Yevgeniy Pashutin reduced the gap to a minimum, and after another two and a half minutes the Saratov team came forward again, and after the first half of the match, they were n the lead by 5 points — 47:42.



Five lag points did not affect the intrigue in the match, which only escalated in such a fight, and in the third ten minutes, the temperature on the court had been only increasing. Now, “Astana” was catching up. After three and a half minutes, the score difference between the teams was 1 point, but our team did not succeed in grasping this chance, and «Avtodor» again made a mini-spurt and regained its advantage of 7 points. The team of Emil Rajkovic, in turn, found a chance to respond. In less than two minutes, the difference again was only 1 point, and in the remaining quarter time, only “Astana” managed  to score. 62:65 capital team led after thirty minutes of the game. The fourth quarter promised to be hot, and  »Avtodor» only poured oil on flames, leading only by 1 point in the first minute of the fourth quarter. After that, the teams began attempts to “pull the rope to their side”. «Avtodor» constantly took the lead, while «Astana» evened the score. This went in this manner for some time. Three minutes before the end the hosts had an advantage of only 2 points, but our team failed to implement the attack, moreover, they missed a couple of opponents' attacks and in less than 2 minutes the difference was already 7 points. The ending took place in a positional competition, and the coaches willingly used the right to time out. In 9 seconds, “Astana” lost 3 points, but failed to pull away with a victory today, and today the glasses and the court were clearly on the side of the hosts. “Astana” has not yet got the taste of away victory this season, losing to “Avtodor” — 90:85 (20:19, 27:23, 15:23, 28:20).

After this defeat, “Astana” again has 50% of victories — 3: 3. As for the standings, the competition is so tight that one defeat and “Astana” went down from third to ninth, this was also affected by the parallel games that took place today. The game in Saratov was very difficult, and the fight was very stubborn, it is also worth noting once again the loss of Whitehead before the match due to injury. Well, Dushan Ristic, who was injured in the fourth quarter, in the last minutes was not as effective as before in the game. Nevertheless, defeat is defeat, and «Avtodor» today proved that they needed the victory even more. Let us hope that all injuries are not serious and will not affect further games.
 

Most productive:
  • “Astana” — all eyes were focused today on Coti Clarke, because he played against his former team, in which he was the leader in the 2017/2018 season, and the American player did not disappoint, becoming the most effective in the Kazakhstan team — 26 points and 7 rebounds. Malcolm Hill also scored more than 20 points (22) and at the same time chalked up 6 rebounds and assists. 15 points are in the asset of Dushan Ristic, who also scored 8 rebounds and 6 assists.
  • “Avtodor” — our team was able to send Muhammad Wait on the bench before the match ended but by this time he had scored 22 points and 13 rebounds. Also in “Avtodor” Americans, Markel Starks shone out — 20 points, 8 assists, and Isaiah Hicks — 18 points and 9 rebounds.

The head coach of «Avtodor» Evgeniy Pashutin:
- Astana” is a serious team that knows how to keep the rhythm and control the game, which it previously proved in the games with “Loco” and “Zenit”. We were well-prepared, successfully acted in defense against Jeremiah Hill. They didn’t deal with Clarke but immediately decided that it was better to let him play one on one than to give all five Astana guards the opportunity to score from different positions. The defense decided everything. The guys did not spare themselves,  fought for the ball did not allow them to score easy balls from under the basket.

Head coach of «Astana» Emil Rajkovic:
- I think the game was very interesting for the audience. We had every chance to finish the match with a victory, but we unsuccessfully played in defense and pick-and-rolls. We experienced a problem associated with a lack of freshness among the leading players because they spent 35-36 minutes on the court. As a result, in crucial minutes, they could not make additional acceleration in order to win. In my opinion, this is the main reason for our defeat. Today we played with just 4 foreign players because Whitehead was absent due to injury.

Next match: «Astana» will hold the next matches at home on November 19 and 20, the capital basketball players will host «Barsy Atyrau» on their court as part of the National League regular season. The next match of the VTB United League, the wards of Emil Rajkovic will play on November 25 in Tallinn against the local «Kalev».

Detailed information about the tournament, standings, the schedule and match results are published in the Tournaments section.

Information about the opponent

Established year: 1960 Team colors: white, black
Country: Russia Arena: SP «Crystall»
City: Saratov Website: avtodor.ru

Description

«Avtodor» — is a Russian professional men's basketball team from the city of Saratov, founded in 1960.
  
Achievements:
  • Silver medallist of Russian Championship — 1993/1994, 1996/1997, 1997/1998, 1998/1999
  • Bronze medallist of Russian Championship — 1995/1996
  • Semi-finalist of the European Cup — 1997/1998
  • Champion of Super League A — 1996/1997, 1997/1998
  • Champion of the Super League B — 2008/2009
  • Champion of the Super League — 2013/2014
  • Bronze winner of the Super League — 2012/2013

Overall team photo

Avtodor