Today, the finals of Basketball Cup of Kazakhstan among men's teams 2017 took place between two irreconcilable rivals PBC Astana and BC Barsy Atyrau.
Yesterday in the semi-final game between «Barsy» from Atyrau and «Caspiy» Aktau the club from Atyrau won with a score of 86:74 in a tenacious struggle, which allowed this team to reach the finals and compete for the first place of the Cup of Kazakhstan.
PBC «Astana», which missed the Cup last year, this time intended to take the Cup to the capital.
No one can say if that was easier said than done, but the game turned out to be the most spectacular and emotional.
The starting five of Astana: Rustem Murzagaliev, Anton Ponomarev, Rustam Ergali, Alexander Zhigulin and Maxim Marchuk.
From the very first attacks, the teams began to make mistakes and could not open a score. Nevertheless Anton Ponomarev took the first step and scored 2: 0, «Barsy» also responded with two points. Then again some minor mistakes had followed, the opponent still could not score, which caused domino effect, making them mistake even more. «Astana» on the contrary, doing the right kind of work and having a cool head, led +10 points. The first period ended with a score of 8:18 in favour of «Astana».
The second quarter also passed without much change. During the first 3 minutes of playtime the teams scored the ball in neither way. Only in the fourth minute Rustem Murzagaliev brought a difficult 3 points to Astana, the opponent also responded with a three-point shot. “Barsy” made attempts to at least even the score, but the 10-point advantage of «Astana» was still preserved until the end of the period. The first half of the game ended with a score of 24:33 in favour of «Astana».
After a long break, the teams came back on the court more aggressive, but for Rustem Murzagaliyev such aggression went badly, after 7 minutes of the game Murzagaliev got the 5th foul and remained on the bench to the end of the match. The team captain, Rustam Ergali took the role of the point guard and brought the necessary three-pointers to his team. The third period ended with a score of 38:47 in favour of PBC «Astana».
The final quarter seemed to last forever, the both teams were tired to this moment, each player had three or four personal fouls, and every wrong move could cost a lot for the teams. But, nevertheless, this did not affect the game; Maxim Marchuk pleased the fans with a stunning dunk, and Anton Ponomarev with great shooting skills. Mikhail Evstigneev, a centre of «Barsy» got the fifth foul and returned to the bench. Pavel Mikheev also received a fifth personal foul as his teammate. «Astana» fell some burden to be taken from them, and they gave the last minutes of the game their all.
The final buzzer sounded with the final score of 46:66. Congratulations to «Astana» on the victory!
This tournament meant quite a lot for «Astana». The team once again proved its own strength, that even without the foreign players, the team plays at a high level and has the right to compete for the first title.
Statistics: Dmitry Gavrilov — 17 points, Rustam Ergali-13 points, Maxim Marchuk-7 points.
According to the old basketball tradition, the five best players of the Cup of Kazakhstan were awarded:
- «The best point guard» — Rustem Murzagaliyev (Astana)
- «The best shooting guard» — Rustam Ergali (Astana)
- «The best small forward» — Pavel Ilyin (Barsy Atyrau)
- «The best power forward» — Anton Ponomarev (Astana)
- «The best centre» - Vsevolod Fadeikin (Almaty Legion)
Once again, we congratulate the team «Astana», all the players, the coaching staff and the leadership with the first trophy this season!
