Astana: there is still hope!

The Kazakhstan Astana, which continue to fight for the playoffs, defeated at home the Ukrainian Budivelnik - 91:85.

The home team realized today the importance of victory and the Kazakh fans supported their team. The first quarter of the match was held in equal fight and only in the last seconds Rawle Marshall accurate three-point throw led the Kazakh team ahead - 22:21. And in the second 10-minute Astana increased the advantage to 20 points thanks to effective actions by Rawle Marshall and Jerry Johnson.  However, Budivelnik players managed to gain their strength and to show what they are made of.

After the big break the advantage of Astana became considerable again - 55:39, however by the middle of the fourth 10-minute Budivelnik again reduced the gap to 9 points - 75:66 but Marshall and Johnson did not give the opponents to turn the match to their own advantage (5 of 6 three-point shots in the match).

Thanks to today's victory Astana still has chances of getting into the playoffs of VTB United League championship. But in order to realize these chances the Kazakh club has to win the remaining two matches - at home with the Russian Nizhniy Novgorod and Khimki. Why not?..

The final score of the match - 91:85 in favor of Astana. The most valuable players in the home team became Johnson (31 points), Marshall (21) and Eric Williams who made a double-double - 13 points and 14 rebounds. In Budivelnik - Jack McClinton (19 points) and Suad Sehovic (14).