In the match of the 13th round of the regular season, the Kazakh “Astana” beat the Ukrainian “Azovmash” at home – 95:80.

Aleksandar Trifunovic's team quickly indicated their intentions, starting the meeting with a 10:0 spurt. The Astana team only further increased their advantage and eventually won a confident victory, which became their third in a row.

Plot

On January 20, Azovmash changed its head coach - Zvezdan Mitrovic took the place of Sergei Zavalin. Mitrovic's first minute and a half in the VTB United League turned out to be very difficult. Just 7 seconds after the controversial start, Branko Cvetkovic earned the right to free throws. After this impulse of the Serb was supported by Pat Calathes and Jerry Johnson: “Astana” simply swept away the opponent in the opening (10:0).

This was followed by a time-out, but the Mariupol team failed to change the course of events in the first quarter. The Kazakhs defended aggressively, forcing the opponent to lose the ball and forcing difficult shots, and in the opposing half they enthusiastically promoted pick-and-rolls, even though successful snipers helped stretch the defense, leaving the “big men” room to maneuver under the basket.

In the second 10 minutes, Azovmash managed to level the game, but this was the maximum that the champion of Kazakhstan allowed the Ukrainians to do. As a whole, the Astana team confidently controlled the development of events and went into the long break with a solid advantage in the score (57:41).

Denouement

There was no resolution as such. Astana, which created a solid reserve in the first 20 minutes of the game, did not allow their advantage to be doubted in the second half, during most of which they kept the opponent at a distance of 15-20 points.

The victory over Azovmash (95:80) was the third in a row for Aleksandar Trifunovic’s squad. The team from Kazakhstan is gaining momentum and beginning to gain a foothold in the playoff zone.

Hero

Jerry Johnson. The restless defender led the team throughout the meeting, replenishing the Astana team's points reserve himself (18 points), and creating the best conditions for his partners (13 assists).

Number

7 – this is how many blocked shots the merciless Olaseni Lawal gave his opponents today. This is a repeat of the best result in the history of the VTB United League (previously, Bamba Fall from Kalev achieved a similar result).

Comments

Astana head coach Aleksandar Trifunovic:

- Congratulations to the team and all the fans on the victory. I am very pleased with today's game; during the match we implemented what we had in mind. We were faced with the task of getting into the playoffs, now we are in a very good position, everything is in our hands and this makes me happy. The next match against Khimki is a good opportunity to see what progress we have made in our work over the past month.

Azovmash head coach Zvezdan Mitrovic:

- “Astana” deservedly won today, it is clear that the team is on the rise, the change of coach was beneficial. Last match you scored 106, today 95 are very good figures. We have big problems with the position of the first number. During the match, Slipenchuk was also injured. Because of this, there were many problems both in defense and in attack.

Teams' best

“Astana”: Jerry Johnson – 18 points, 13 assists, Janis Blooms – 16 points, Davis Simon – 14 points, Patrick Calathes – 13 points, 6 rebounds, Branko Cvetkovic – 11 points, Olaseni Lawal – 9 points, 6 rebounds, 7 blocked shots.

“Azovmash”: Kirill Natyazhko – 15 points, 7 rebounds, Igor Zaitsev – 15 points, Maxim Pustozvonov – 14 points, Coleman Collins – 9 points, Dmitry Zabirchenko – 8 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists.

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