Astana defeated Tsmoki-Minsk, 84-67 (19-13, 21-18, 21-18, 23-18).
Top Scorers
Astana: Rob Lowery (25), Ian Miller (21), Dimitrios Katsivelis (13+6 ast)
Tsmoki-Minsk: Justin Gray (16), Djordje Gagic (13+12 reb), Nemanja Milosevic (10)
Recap
Coming into Sunday’s game, Astana had won two in a row and three out of its last four.
Behind eight points from Ian Miller, Astana jumped out to a 19-13 lead in the opening period. The advantage grew to 10 early in the 2nd quarter as Rob Lowery started to heat up.
He finished with 11 points in the period and went on to post a game-high 25. At halftime, Astana led by nine. The home team continued to pull away in the second half, ultimately winning by 17.
The Kazakh club improves to 5-3, half a game behind Lokomotiv-Kuban for 5th place. Tsmoki drops to 3-6 and has now lost five of its last six.
Stat
90% – Astana shot 90% from the free-throw line, 26-29 overall. Tsmoki also converted at the stripe (17-19), but didn’t get there quite as often as the home team.
Quotes
Astana head coach Ilias Papatheodorou:
– This was an important win and I think we deserved it 100%. The players followed the game plan from the very start. We were excellent on both sides of the court, on offense and on defense. For us, it’s very important right now to keep the same approach in our work.
Tsmoki-Minsk head coach Igor Grishchuk:
– Congratulations to Astana on the win. We lost by 17 points. I don’t have anything else to add.
Up Next
Astana: December 10 vs. Lokomotiv-Kuban
Tsmoki-Minsk: December 18 at Enisey
Snapshot
