In the second game of the quarterfinal of the VTB United League playoff series of, the capital «Astana» again failed to cope with BC “Khimki” — 82:59 (24:17, 15:17, 22:13, 21:12).
After the first victory, BC “Khimki” had not only a leading position in the series and a psychological advantage, but they also played the second game at home with the support of their home crowd. Taking to consideration all above mentioned factors this game was extremely tough for the visitors. Nevertheless, our guys came to the site fully configured to fight.
Jeffrey Grossell won the toss and, although not in the first attack, he was the one who opened the score. The first minutes of the game BC “Astana” looked much better than the opponents and scored with more confidence. Already with the score 4: 9, Rimas Kurtinaitis had to take the first time out of the game, and this minute pause was good for the local team. The score became equal in the middle of the first quarter. In the remaining 5 minutes of the quarter, our rivals have already looked much more impressive than in the start of the meeting. Especially late entree of the game Jordan Mickey, who scored 7 points, and the first quarter ended with 7 points advantage for the hosts — 21:14. In the second quarter, the Kazakhstan team tried to hold back rivals who caught fire at the finish of the first 10 minutes, but after a couple of minutes the difference in the score reached 10 points. For BC “Astana” three-pointers were extremely bad, or rather, they didn’t go at all, while BC “Khimki” had already reached 16 unanswered points during the match. Kenneth Horton was able to improve the team threes’ statistics for the by scoring two accurate long-range shots, thereby reducing the BC “Astana” deficit to 12 points after the first half of the game — 47:35.
After a long break, the struggle on the court continued for BC “Astana”. Basketball players of the capital team, although they could not cut the deficit, but they didn’t give the opponents even more to break away. The difference in the score the first 5 minutes of the third quarter kept around 10-15 points. But in the remaining game time the hosts have achieved their goal and seized the initiative. The advantage of “Khimki” players gradually increased, and a minute before the end of the third segment of the game exceeded 20 points. In the end, thanks to the interception in the last seconds, “Khimki” went to last break before the final quarter with a significant advantage — 73:50. Our team did not turn off from the fight in the fourth period and again kept its rivals from significant scoring run. But it was noticeable that the leaders of BC “Astana”, having done a tremendous job in three quarters, were no longer so active, and they no longer had the strength to organize the comeback. By the end of the match, Emil Rajkovic increasingly involved the bench, allowing the leaders to rest. The match has long assumed the character of an open game, and the locals clearly caught courage and, warmly supported by their tribunes, completed the game with a confident victory — 94:64.
BC “Astana” had an excellent start to this game, and the head coach of “Khimki” had to interrupt the Kazakhstani’s run with a time-out, after which the hosts played with a greater confidence. The hosts tried their best to defend the perimeter activity of “Astana” and succeeded in this, and then the three-pointer shot of our players did not go in. Throughout the game, only Kenneth Horton was able to score because of a three-point arc twice, and Anthony Clemmons was marked with one hit. 15% of shots from behind the arc left a huge mark on the overall result, and if you add to this a large number of unforced turnovers, which led to the easy points by the rivals in the fast break, it is not surprising that the final result of the match with deflation -30. But this does not mean that the players did not try, they put all their strength into the game and played very well in defense against the positional attacks of the opponents. But today, the “basketball gods” were not on our side.
The most productive:
- «Khimki»: Alexey Shved (19 + 7 gears), Jordan Mickey (18 + 5 rebounds), Malcolm Thomas (12 + 8 rebounds).
- «Astana»: Stephen Holt (15), Kenneth Horton (14 + 8 rebounds), Jeffrey Grossell (13 + 5 rebounds).
The head coach of «Khimki» — Rimas Kurtinaitis:
- I am glad to win and especially to the style in which we won. I am happy for the players, because the coach is always pleased when the guys fight all forty minutes, regardless of the result. There were good stretches, they were not very good, especially at first, but we fought and everyone who came off the bench played at full strength. I am pleased with the way the team plays now. I also want to thank the viewers who supported us so well. We always hear them, today support was excellent.
The head coach of «Astana» — Emil Rajkovic:
- Congratulations to BC “Khimki”, today they were better. They have a deeper rotation and higher class players, so they dominated. We tried, involved more players than in the first match to be fresher, but objectively we do not have such a deep roster as Khimki. I think that now they are playing 80-90% of their real strength, and if they continue to perform in the same way, they will be one of the favorites to win the VTB League. The series moves to Nur-Sultan, and we will try to win the first match at home.
The next one — the 3rd match of the series will take place on Friday, May 10 at the home ground of the capital team — at the arena of the Saryarka cycle track, beginning at 17:00 Nur-Sultan. Tickets for the match are already on sale on the website
Ticketon.kz.
Detailed information about tournaments, tournament tables, the schedule and results of matches are published in the section
Tournaments.
