Source: http://pbcastana.kz

The presidential basketball club "Astana" pleased its fans with the victory in the first home match of the regular season of the VTB United League over Lokomotiv Krasnodar.

From the very start of the game, a tough and uncompromising struggle ensued, and neither Astana nor Loko could make a significant break in the first 10 minutes. However, at the end of the quarter, the guests managed to score unanswered penalties, thanks to which the Kuban won 4 points at the end of the period. In the second period, “Loco " began to actively press — less than three minutes, and their gap has already exceeded ten. Emil Rajkovic's players tried to regain the balance in the game, but alas, the first half of the match ended with the score – 42: 54 in favor of Lokomotiv.

Returning from the locker room, the capital basketball players were determined to fix everything and quickly reduced their backlog, but they failed to catch up with opponents in the third quarter, but they lost by only 3 points before the final ten minutes. "Locomotive" at the start of the quarter made another breakthrough and returned to the comfort zone, having an advantage of 10 points. But "Astana" desperately struggled and for three minutes before the end of the match was behind by only 1 point. A minute later, the capitals first tied the score and then took the lead for the first time after the first period. The ending of the match was very nervous, with the use of video viewing and a lot of marriage on the court. Nevertheless, the nerves were stronger for our guys and they won a very important victory over one of the top teams of the tournament– 90:88 (21:25, 21:29, 25:16, 23:18).

The game was difficult for both teams. And despite the fact that our guests were ahead almost the whole match, "Astana" showed its fighting character every minute, which brought it victory today. Thanks to this victory, Astana broke into the top five, ahead of Lokomotiv, Nizhny Novgorod and CSKA.

The next matches "Astana" will hold on the road-on October 15 and 16, the capital's basketball players will go to Aktau to visit "Caspian", where they will play the first two matches in the new season of the National League. The next match in the regular season of the VTB United League wards Emil raikovich will be held in the suburbs, against the local "Khimki".

Photo: http://pbcastana.kz