During the match of the regular VTB League championship, “Astana” lost in the match against “Khimki” with the score of 88:93.

Starting lineup of “Astana”: Pavel Ilyin, Jakovan Brown, Luksha Andrich, Anatoly Kolesnikov, and Patrick Kalates.

Luksha Andrich opened the score of the match. The match was fair, and there was a persistent struggle. Our players managed to do long shots. Throughout the starting quarter, both teams had equal score, only at the end of the quarter “Astana” managed to take the lead of five points with the score of 25:20.

During the second quarter, Jakovan Brown became the best scorer. He made successful hits and due to his target hits to the ring of the rival, the teams left for the break - 44:46.

The players in yellow uniform began the second half with equalizing the score. The advantage of Astana players was sustained throughout the third quarter - 72:67. During the fourth quarter, the guests took the lead - 88:93 – in favour of guests.

Comments of Rimas Kurtinaitis, the head coach of “Khimki” BC:
- I am very glad that we won because having arrived to Astana we had problems on the example of the last year. But in the last year we won in very active struggle. We were very worried on playing against “Astana”, the more that we had three players injured – Popovich, Augustin and Davis. But we were lucky that Jerry Johnson did not played in “Astana”, at the moment he is one of the main players of “Astana” team, this was the key to our victory. I would like to pay tribute to “Astana” and to wish them success in all the competitions they participate in.  

Comments of Alexander Trifunovich, the head coach of “Astana” BC:
- I would like to thank both teams. Of course, we knew that “Khimki” had three injured players: Augustin, Popovich and Davis, but we should remember that we started the season without Niklas Kaner-Medley. And two days before the match it was decided that Jerry Johnson will not play because he was injured during Eurochallenge tournament three days ago. Undoubtedly, the value of these two players is very high. In any case, “Khimki” is a great team and today they demonstrated their level. The match was similar to the match against UNICS, at the beginning of which we controlled the game, but in the end, we made a hasty shot somewhere. Somewhere in defense, we lost concentration and allowed “Khimki” too much. But now we will analyze our mistakes and will prepare for the next matches.

As part of the partnership, in the home match among the fans, 50 000 tenge Certificate for the purchase of the tickets from “Pulkovo Express Astana” Authorized Travel-provider of “Astana” Presidential club was played. During the break between the two quarters, the contest was played, the boy named Mikhail was the winner. We congratulate Mikhail!

The next match will take place at the cycling track on December 16, at 17.00, within Eurochallenge tournament. “Astana” BC will play against “Avtodor” BC.

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