Astana defeated Avtodor on the road, 79-78 (24-22, 19-9, 21-28, 15-19).
Top Scorers
Avtodor: Nick Minnerath (23+8 reb), Vince Hunter (17), Evgeny Kolesnikov (12), Josh Adams (12)
Astana: Ian Miller (24), Rob Lowery (18), Leonidas Kaselakis (12+7 reb), Dimitrios Katsivelis (8+11 ast)
Build-Up
After Vince Hunter’s layup on the first possession of the game, Astana never trailed in the first half. Led by Ian Miller, who finished with a game-high 24, Astana enjoyed a dominant 2nd quarter, outscoring the home team 19-9 and led 43-31 at halftime.
The visitors briefly led by 14 in the 3rd quarter, before Avtodor mounted a comeback. Nick Minnerath and Josh Adams led the charge, knocking down three’s to make it a five-point game with four minutes remaining in the period, 56-51.
Avtodor got within a point late in the 3rd quarter, but Astana was able to go back in front by 11, 70-59, early in the 4th.
Needing a spark, the home team got seven huge points from Sergey Bykov, while Vince Hunter hit a pair of free throws that cut Astana’s lead to one, 76-75, with 1:34 to go.
Turning Point
On Astana’s next possession, the visitors came up with two huge offensive rebounds, eventually getting Rob Lowery to the line, where he converted one of two attempts.
After Bykov tied the game at 77-77 on a driving layup, Avtodor quickly got the ball back again on a Ian Miller miss.
With time ticking down, Nick Minnerath earned a trip to the line, fouled by Ousman Krubally. He missed the first, but made the second, giving the home team its first lead of the game since the opening seconds.
It wouldn’t last long. Ian Miller missed a jumper, but Leonidas Kaselakis snatched the board and put it in for two, giving Astana the lead, 79-78, and the win.
In a game with huge playoff implications, Astana comes out on top, improving to 8-10, while Avtodor drops to 5-12, 2.5 games back of 8th place with only seven to play.
Stat
9 – This was an extremely competitive game, but Avtodor will probably look back to the 2nd quarter and its nine-point showing as one of the primary reasons for today’s defeat.
Quotes
Avtodor head coach Vladimir Antsiferov:
– This was a very tough game. We came out to win and the game should have been ours. Unfortunately, some of the guys were a little too wound up. Other guys didn’t play their best. We’ll figure it out. In the second half, we grabbed the momentum, but our opponent’s smart execution canceled out our efforts. A one-point loss in the final seconds–that’s a tough blow. But we need to keep moving forward. We got unlucky. We have to get back to a quick tempo, which we’ve lost unfortunately. Thank you to the fans for the support.
Astana head coach Ilias Papatheodorou:
– I think we deserved this win. We controlled the game from the start to finish. We expected pressure from Avtodor in the second half. In my opinion, Avtodor is one of the best offensive teams in the VTB United League. Our only problem today was that we let them score some easy points in the fast break. After that our opponent got in a rhythm and hit some important three-point shots. But we were very focused. We were ready for Avtodor’s reaction and picked up a very important win on the final shot. Congratulations to my players.
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Up Next
Avtodor: March 14 at Kalev
Astana: March 5 vs. Parma
