The Presidential Basketball Club “Astana» departs Aktau with two wins after the first series of matches in the new season of the National League of the Kazakhstan Championship.
After the first major victory, “Astana” was a favorite in the second game with “Caspiy”, and everyone expected only 4 points from the western Kazakhstan from the capital team. At the last game, along with Kazakhstan players, Americans Jeremiah Hill and Malcolm Hill were rostered.
Unlike the first game, although the hosts opened a score, it was our basketball players who quickly took the lead. The advantage of “Astana” pretty quickly exceeded 10 points, but “Caspiy” was not going to give away the victory, and before the end of the first period the hosts reduced their gap to 6 points. Most of the second period there was a neck to neck competition for the ball; “Astana” tried to “throw off” the rivals, but they did not give up, but at the same time, could not even the score. Before the big break, the capital team broke the resistance of “Caspiy” and a couple of minutes before leaving for the break took a good advantage — 32:47.
At the start of the third quarter, it became clear that Emil Rajkovic had an effective break with his team when our guys had a tremendous start of a quarter. “Astana” further increased the gap in a matter of minutes up to 30 points. The Aktau players adjusted to the pace imposed by our team and leveled the game, but they did not have much success in seizing the game back. Before the final quarter, “Astana” was in the lead by 29 points. For our players, to win this game was only a technicality. The capital basketball players confidently led their game and did not strain the situation. As a result, another major victory over the Aktau «Caspiy» with a score of 52:83 (19:25, 13:22, 8:22, 12:14).
Once again, our rivals demonstrated their readiness to fight and showed all their strength, having spent the first half of the game pretty well. But “Astana” again fully controlled the game, which brought the “yellow-turquoise» their second victory. A confident game style in the first away series of the National League matches and two major victories allowed «Astana» to lead the National Championship standings.
The most effective players: Jeremiah Hill scored the most points today — 23 while making 4 assists. The most effective in the camp of “Astana” became “ex-Caspian” Robert Pan (17 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 interceptions). In “Caspiy”, the center Denis Orlenko again became the best (10 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, and 6 block shots), and Vladimir Kurochkin scored the most points for the Aktau team (13 points).
Next match: «Astana» will return home, but not for long, only take a breath and prepare for an away game with «Khimki» in the VTB United League, which will take place on Sunday, October 20.
Detailed information about the tournament, standings, the schedule and match results are published in the Tournaments section.
