ASTANA (Kazakhstan) - BC Astana made their maiden FIBA WASL home game all the more memorable by downing Sagesse SC, 71-62, to break through into the 2025-26 West Asia League win column, Wednesday night.
The Kazakh powerhouse started out strong before putting together a solid finish to ensure that the 2,430-plus fans in attendance at the Saryarka Velodrome would go back home with plenty of reasons to celebrate.
It was the first time ever that the pan-regional competition held a game in Kazakhstan and their representatives surely did not disappoint, eventually netting their first victory after bowing to Shahrdari Gorgan last week.
"It's history," said head coach Ramunas Cvirka. "Today was history."
Four players scored in double figures in the triumph, with Robert Pan leading the way with 21 points alongside 5 rebounds and 4 assists for an efficiency of 22 to bag home Capelli Player of the Game honors.
The sweet-shooting big went an excellent 5-of-8 from beyond the arc, the last of which serving as the dagger to seal the deal as it pushed their lead to 71-59 with 40.3 seconds left, much to the delight of his squad.
Seasoned forward Alexandr Zhigulin delivered 15 points and 7 rebounds. Adas Juskevicius made 13 points, including 11 in the opening frame to lead their 24-16 charge that helped set the tone for the wire-to-wire win.
Askar Maykedin chipped in 10 points and 5 rebounds to help Astana beat Sagesse for the first time in WASL after bowing in their first two meetings, both of which happened in the previous two editions of the Final 8.
"Against Gorgan, it was a little bit of a bad game," recalled Cvirka.
"But tonight, it was a good game for us on defense. We also had good control of the game especially on offense, making good passes and good splits," the veteran bench tactician continueds.
The Green Castle, on the other hand, fell to their worst start in WASL ever as they absorbed their third defeat in as many games, leaving Coach Joe Ghattas and the rest of the Lebanese crew a frustrated bunch yet again.
Ali Haidar led Sagesse with 17 points. Makur Maker had 12 points and 11 rebounds in 40 minutes, while Erick Green added 10 as the team continues to miss the production of Tony Carr, who's still treading the road to recovery.
Carr has suffered an undisclosed injury although he tried to play against Astana, but could not go out and play his usual yet. He only played for seven minutes, and finished with 2 points, 3 rebounds, and an assist.
The rest of the league will now head into a break to give way for Window 1 of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers, which is scheduled to take place from November 27 to December 1.
FIBA