Astana beat Lokomotiv Kuban at home — 87:83 (20:25, 24:21, 22:18, 21:19).
The best scorers
Astana: Anthony Hickey (43 + 10 rebounds, 11 assists), Antonio Campbell (14), Skylar Spencer (12 + 15 rebounds)
Lokomotiv Kuban: Errick McCollum (17 + 6 assists), Alan Williams (11 + 9 rebounds), Darius Thompson (11 + 5 rebounds + 5 assists), Jaylen Barford (11)
Game progress
Astana entered the game with Loko as the last battle — a 7-game losses streak and no more chance to loose. The hosts immediately stunned the Krasnodar team with a tight defense, giving out an 8:3 run in the first minutes. Having recovered, Loko were able to cope with the starting onslaught of Astana, equalizing the score with the actions of Alan Williams, and then went ahead. Until the end of the 1st quarter, Loko had the initiative, and at the end, former Astana player Jaylen Barford brought the advantage of his new team to 5 points. Anthony Hickey stood out for Astana and scored 12 points in the quarter.
The 2nd quarter began with two 3-pointers in a row by Antonio Campbell. The hosts took the lead again, and by the middle of the quarter they gave out a 8:0 run. Loko responded with their run, after which a nervous game went on with a lot of mutual mistakes. Loko took better advantage of their chances, sending Errick McCollum into the pass a few seconds before the halftime and taking the lead. 46:44 the guests lead at the end of the first half.
Immediately after the halftime, Greg Whittington scored from behind the arc, increasing the home team’s lead to 5 points. However, Anthony Hickey was not going to let Loko go with a win that day. He tirelessly shot 3-pointers, again giving out a shock quarter – 14 points. At the same time, the American guard was active on the boards and did not forget to assist his partners, coming close to a triple-double. For the last quarter, Astana left in the leader – 66:64.
ANTHONY HICKEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING pic.twitter.com/vIQwCHubw1
— VTB League (@VTBUL) February 15, 2022
The key moment
The final quarter began with a shootout, which was arranged by the teams in the first minutes — at Astana, the main character in this segment was a young Mark Tikhonenko, who scored twice from behind the arc with Hickey’s passes. 3 minutes before the end, Antonio Campbell, with another 3-pointer with an equal score, put Astana ahead again – 83:80, and the game moved into the endgame.
With 40 seconds left before the final buzzer, Hickey scored his last 2 points of the game, once again providing his team with a 3-point difference. Loko failed to hit the ring of Astana due to the arc, but the selection in the attack of Jaylen Barford left chances for Lokomotiv. The teams exchanged free-throws, after which Darius Thompson got the ball — and forced Tikhonenko to foul on the 3-point line. To give Loko a chance for overtime, with the score 86:83, Thompson had to score all 3 free-throws, but missed all of them. Loko was forced to foul on Skylar Spencer, who had not score free-throws before. 1 shot made was enough — 87:83 5 seconds before the end, and the guests had no chance to even the score. Astana stops its 7-game losses streak and enters the race for the playoffs.
Hero
Anthony Hickey. The All-Star Game 2022 participant got a truly historic game. He not only scored 43 points, but also made a triple-double – an achievement that had previously been done by only 6 players in the history of the League. For the American, this is also a career high, but he has already got a triple-double in one of the Greek championship games.
Numbers
43. Anthony Hickey showed the 2nd result in history. Only 6 points were not enough for him to Stevan Elovac record, who scored 49 points against Kalev in 2018. At the same time, Hickey set another record: 43 points — the best result in the games without overtimes.
Comments
Darko Russo, Astana Head Coach :
– I am happy for our team, because we had a lot of games that we lost in the end. Today we controlled most of the game except for the end of the first half, when Loko managed to leave for a halftime with a 2-point lead. But after that we caught our rhythm and played pretty well. Once again, I congratulate our team on the victory.
Branko Maksimovic, Loko Head Coach:
– Today the opponent was ahead us in details. We had several long unsuccessful stretches runs in the game. We were unable to maintain the necessary level of concentration and attention to detail for the entire 40 minutes.
What’s next
Astana: home game against UNICS on February 17
Lokomotiv Kuban: road game against CSKA on February 18
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