“Astana” adheres to traditions!

20.10.2014

In a match of the regular season, Kazakhstani “Astana” sensationally defeated Russian “Lokomotiv-Kuban” - 81:70. As early as in the first quarter, the hosts overwhelmed the visitors with a dense protection and confident game with shields. Despite all the efforts of “Loco”, during the fourth 10-minute period, “Astana” only scored up and brought the match to its victory.

The Plot

"Loco" arrived in the capital of Kazakhstan as one of the favorites of the season, the players from Krasnodar started very strongly and already managed to beat the current champion of the League CSKA. “Astana” began the championship with the defeat of the “Nymburk” in the Czech Republic.

The home match of the team was like a new start. At home, with the support of the “sixth player”, the ambitious Kazakhstanis may become a threat to the favorites. By the way, all starting home matches during the previous seasons were won by “Astana” (games with “Zalgiris”, “Lietuvos Rytas” and “Triumph”). Now this team had to do it for the fourth time in a row.

Both the teams went through a tough test: they had to do without their injured leaders. “Loco” was without Malcolm Delaney, who had brilliantly started the season, and “Astana” was without Nick Caner-Medley, its main team star striker. However, both the teams had someone else to pick up the battle flag.

The hosts started the match without any reverence to the formidable opponent. The main whip of the yellow-blue players in the game with “Nymburk” - low percentage of hits in the game – was left in the past. The main “sparkle” was phenomenal Jekovan Brown, who scored all kinds of balls.

Anyway, “Astana” behaved very confident - playing the ball to the result and goading the defense of “railroad” players by endlessly shooting pick-and-rolls. Brilliant game was shown in the ring of the enemy by the “big” hosts, Rashid Mahalbasich and Luksha Andrich, together scoring 16 points by the break. However, “Loco” played a little nervously, scoring most points by individual actions. The guest to be remarked is Evgeny Voronov, doing eurosteps in the spirit of Manu Ginobili.

Denouement

The third 10-minute period continued in the same spirit: “Locomotive” become active at moments, only occasionally showing good movement of the ball. The biggest drawbacks of the team of Bazarevich were in unexplained gaps in the defense, which occurred infrequently, but resulted in that the Krasnodar players failed to score up the 4-point gap. Even heroism of Derrick Brown did not help, who scored three three-pointers in a quarter. The “Astana” had the same by Anton Ponomarev. Generally, the squad of Aleksandar Trifunovich attacked slowly and firmly, but towards the end of the quarter, feeling the opponent’s breath behind, rocketed to 7: 0.

Everything was to be resolved in the fourth period. “Astana” felt the taste of the approaching victory and did not want to miss it, defending itself very tightly. The guests’ attacks went wrong - they made many fussy and unprepared throws, and the gap grew further.

The crazy throw by Patrick Kalates in two minutes before the end was not supposed to hit the target, but it did - and it seemed to put an end to the match: “Loco” faltered and never managed to get back in the game. “Astana” also remained true to its tradition - the fourth consecutive victory in the opening home game of the VTB League!

Hero

Jecovan Brown. This American is famous primarily for his bright game, dribbling and incredible crossovers - he demonstrated all of this in the reporting game. However, his game was also reliable: he assisted very well; he almost lost the ball and missed only one penalty of 11 that really helped his team.

Numbers

48:29 – victory of “Astana” in rebounds. “Who takes the shield, he take the match”, and today's match proved the validity of these words. Special note is deserved by those who dominated under the shield of Mahalbasich (15 rebounds, 5 of which in the attack) and Kalates (17 rebounds).

Comments

Chief Coach of “Astana” Aleksandar Trifunovich: 
- I want to thank our team, the coaching staff, all the players for the spirit, which they showed today. No doubt, the season has just begun, so it is too early to say something or to note someone. For me, “Lokomotiv-Kuban” team was among the favorites. As a result, we were able to make a surprise! We will try to continue surprising people.

Chief Coach of “Lokomotiv-Kuban” Sergey Bazarevich: 
- We are not as good as we thought about ourselves. The game did not go well from the beginning, sometimes we did not score, sometimes we did not pick up, and “Astana” was a little luckier in the end, when Kalates scored a heavy ball.

And yet, one cannot discount the fact that Delaney did not play and we were not able to get tuned in. We need to draw the right conclusions. Because, I repeat, we were of a too good opinion about ourselves.

www.vtb-league.com

Share: