Belarusian «Dragon» flies to Astana

03.03.2018, 12:00    Views: 516
Source: Press service
Author: Almira Shakhaeva

Tomorrow, on March 4, the capital's basketball club will host a home match in the regular season of the VTB United League against the team «Tsmoki-Minsk» from the Republic of Belarus.

«Tsmoki-Minsk» - is a Belarusian professional men's basketball club from Minsk, founded in 2006. In addition to participating in the VTB United League, it plays in the FIBA Europe Cup.

Achievements:

  • Champion of Belarus 2009-2016
  • Winner of the Belarusian Cup 2010-2016

  
Chronicle of past games:
Basketball club from Minsk has been participating in the VTB United League since 2010. The Kazakhstan club met 9 times with the team from Minsk on the court, «Astana» managed to win three times the champion of Belarus. This season, «Astana» has already played with the «Dragon» in the arena of Minsk, where it lost by 75:66.
 
Current situation:
For the second season, the club is headed by the Belorussian coach Alexander Krutikov, who also holds the post of Belarus National Team's head coach. One of the leaders of the team is the American defender Devon Saddler, who by the way is a naturalized player of the National Team of Belarus. In the VTB League Saddler brings on average 13 points per game to his team. It should be noted that the players of «Tsmoki-Minsk» are the key players of the National Team of Belarus.
 
Standings:
Basketball club «Tsmoki-Minsk» along with «Astana» and «VEF» from Riga actually share one place in the standings. All three teams have the same ratio of games and wins, it means that each team will fight for a place in the playoffs of the VTB League.
 
Commentary head coach of BC «Astana», Mikhail Karpenko:
- This is a very important game for us. The team «Tsmoki-Minsk» is our main competitor for getting into the playoffs, everyone understands this, both we and the rival. Naturally, the game will be very tough and there will be big bets on the final standings. As for the Minsk team, they are practically in the same situation, like us, from the point of view that «Tsmoki» is the base club of the National Team of Belarus, also the head coach of the club Alexander Krutikov is the head coach of the National Team. It is worth noting that the Belarusians played their matches well in the second qualifying round, lost in the hard struggle to the Spanish National Team and defeated the current champions of Europe, the Slovenian team. Therefore, emotionally, Minsk players will be on the rise, especially one of the leaders of the team Devon Saddler, is a naturalized player and play for the National Team of this country. In the rest, we and the opponent, we have an equal number of victories. We are in the same position and of course, we will play to win. First of all, we need to cope with the leaders of the team, this is the same Saddler, Kudryavtsev, who is a very experienced shooter, Kravish, and Cherapovic. We have good chances, if we do, everything we have planned on our practices, I think we can beat the opponent.

Where, when, at what time?
Arena: the Republican cycle track «Saryarka»
Time: 18.00 by the time of Astana
Broadcast: VTB United League website, BC «Astana» website, «QazSport» TV channel



«Samruk-Kazyna» National Welfare Fund

Uniform operator «Tourism Industry and Sports Support Fund»