«Astana» Astana, Kazakhstan vs. «Avtodor» Saratov, Russia

Avtodor defeated Astana on the road, 131-93. The visitors pushed the pace on offense all afternoon, dropping a league-record 71 points in the first half! Avtodor finished with 131 points, another record, and notched the team's first road win of the season to improve to 6-4.

Recap
Astana has struggled to start the season, but a win over Krasny Oktyabr last week boosted the team's confidence. The Kazakh champs hoped to build on that success against Avtodor. The visitors, meanwhile, were in search of their first road victory.

From the opening tip, the offense took center stage. Saratov was red-hot from beyond the arc, knocking down five of six 3-point attempts in the 1st quarter to take a 37-27 lead. The visitors matched that number in the 2nd quarter, finishing 10-12 from downtown in the first half to score a league-record 71 points.

Avtodor continued to pull away in the second half. The Russians finished with 131 points, shooting a phenomenal 72% on two-point attempts. Saratov improves to 6-4 with the win, catching Nymburk in the standings.

Star Player
Paul Stoll. Everyone shared in the credit for Avtodor's amazing performance, but Stoll was especially impressive, scoring 24 points (6-8 from the field, 8-8 at the line) to go with eight assists, two rebounds and two steals.

Stat of the Game
131 - number of points scored by Saratov. That's a new VTB United League record. The previous mark of 119 was set by Avtodor last season against Tsmoki and matched by CSKA in a win over Nymburk earlier this season.

Avtodor also set records for most points in a half (117) and assists (40).

Quotes
Astana head coach Ramunas Butautas:
- We gave our opponents the momentum from the opening minutes. Avtodor was more aggressive and quicker today. On offense, we started very slowly, but the biggest reason for our defeat was our defense.

Avtodor head coach Alexey Vasilyev:
- It's great that we scored 131 points, but giving up 93 is not very good. It's probably hard in this type of situation to make the guys play hard at both ends of the court. I'm happy that they played so well today.

Stats

Snapshot