Astana beat Tsmoki-Minsk on the road – 80:78 (24:24, 19:16, 19:11, 18:27).
Top scorers
Tsmoki-Minsk: Kris Clyburn (17), Toms Leimanis (15 + 8 assists), Yauheni Beliankou (13), Derek Cooke (10 + 13 rebounds).
Astana: Jeremiah Hill (22), Eric Buckner (21 + 11 rebounds), Ojars Silins (9 + 5 rebounds + 5 assists).
Story
Two teams with longest losing streaks in the League met in Minsk. Tsmoki-Minsk (2-15) lost seven in a row, Astana (4-13) six. The opponents started off hard: the guests hit 2 quick threes hitting another one soon – 10:2 run. Minsk attacked the basket mostly from the paint. The Dragons took over the game for a while via good defensive period but Kazakhstan pulled themselves together and spent first half in even game. Astana hit 7 from 17 threes, Tsmoki-Minsk got twice more assists than their opponents and hit 12 from 19 from the field. By the half time the there were 43:40 on the scoreboard in Kazakhstan favor.
In the second half Astana paced up at defense making the opponents score 1 point per minute. The guests found new offensive option: Eric Buckner scored 8 points in the third. After 2 even quarters Kazakhstan made another run – 65:21 by the final quarter.
Tsmoki-Minsk spent the majority of the fourth quarter without committing turnovers and got closer to Astana. Toms Leimanis and Derek Cooke shots let the hosts force clutch – 74:78 with two minutes left.
Key moment
Astana in the remaining time had only one field goal, Eric Bluckner with 56 seconds left hit a hook, but it was a game-winner. Tsmoki-Minsk reduced the gap to 2 points, and then, having a successful defensive possession had 20 more seconds for a key possession with 78:80. Kris Clyburn took the initiative, he drove to the basket and tried to tie the game but Kazakhstan smothered the shot, it was a miss. Standing Dragons’ push, Astana broke losing streak and saved theoretical chances for a play-offs seed.
Hero
Eric Buckner. The Center collected double double with 21 points and 11 rebounds on 9/12 shooting. The second half was the finest hour for Buckner when he was making shots and helped his team save the lead.
Stat
4 – Astana took 4th away victory of the season (4-6). The team share 7th place in the League in this indicator. At home the situation is much worse – 1-7.
Comments
Tsmoki-Minsk Rostislav Vergun:
– Unfortunately, this season is hard for us, our guys have to get used to new roles in the decisive part of the regular season. This process ins’t a piece of cake. But tonight we saw that the changes are for the better. I’m gal that the guys showed spirit and will to fight. We managed to come back despite we had an unsuccessful period in the second half. Now, we prepare for the next game.
Astana head coach Emil Rajkovikj:
– It was a tough game, we knew it. Minsk always play with passion. We controlled the game and in the second half were up for more than 10 points but let Tsmoki come back. The clutch was interesting, glad we won. We should save this game. I am happy with the victory also because we used 11 players tonight. It is an impact to our future.
Next
Tsmoki-Minsk»: March 28 @ Khimki
Astana: March 25 vs Zielona Gora
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