Anderson takes over as Astana beat Gorgan, move closer to Final 8 Semis

DUBAI (United Arab Emirates) - Karvel Anderson took over in the endgame as BC Astana nipped Shahrdary Gorgan, 87-81, to move closer to the FIBA West Asia Super League (WASL) Final 8 Semi-Finals, Sunday night at the Sheikh Saeed Bin Maktoum Sports Hall.

The seasoned guard finished with a game-high 30 points, including 10 of his team's last 15 points as the reigning Kazakhstan champions found a way to overcome a deficit as wide as five early in the fourth quarter big thanks to him.

Astana are now 2-0 in Group B, and will look to clinch the pool's top seed against the undefeated Kuwait Club on 13 June at 19:00 local time. Kuwait Club (1-0) are playing Shabab Al Ahli-Dubai (1-0) as of this posting.

Gorgan, on the other hand, remained winless after two games.

Game heroes: Also starring in the character win were Markell Johnson and Martin Krampelj as the duo scored 17 points apiece, with the former adding 10 assists.

Turning point: Astana went down by four with 3:34 left to play but Krampelj sliced it to a half, and Anderson would work his magic afterwards as he converted a rare 4-point play to give the Central Asia representatives a 78-76 lead.

Behnam Yakhchali got Gorgan to within a point, but there was no stopping Astana anymore as Anderson applied the final touches to secure the victory -- and rightfully earn himself STEP AHEAD Player of the Game honors.

Stats don't lie: Gorgan committed 14 turnovers -- twice the errors of Astana -- that the opposition converted into 19 points.

They said: "Today was a very difficult game. We played very good defense in the last minutes. But now, we must rest and get ready for our next game against Kuwait." - Oleg Kiselev, Head Coach, BC Astana.

"It was very important for us defensively. We changed a lot of schemes and strategies during the game and I think how aggressive we were showed in the end with the 14 turnovers we were able to create and led to a lot of easy baskets for us, a lot of good looks." - Karvel Anderson, BC Astana.

FIBA