The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : SAI, Sports School take titles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 25, 2004

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Sport - Basketball

SAI, Sports School take titles

BANGALORE, MAY 24. Sports Authority of India (SAI), Dharwad, scored two come from behind victories today to walk away with the State Youth (under-16) basketball championship title, its maiden victory, at the Sree Kanteerava stadium (outdoor courts).

SAI downed Young Orions SC 43-39 after trailing 17-27 at half-time in the morning and then pulled out all stops in a thrilling 36-30 win over Jayanagar SC (JSC) even as rains threatened to spoil their celebrations, for an all-win record in the semifinal league.

Sports School, Vidyanagar, led by the irrepressible Deepa, quelled the challenge from Vivek SC 42-31 to regain the girls' title after a three-year gap. Viveks for the second successive year ended up in the runner-up spot.

Beagles finished third best in both the sections. While its boys snatched a 32-30 victory over Young Orions SC the girls made short work of IBBC to score a 47-28 win.

SAI boys looked out of tune to start with and with JSC clicking to a nicety led 18-13 at half-time. But the recovery was coming as Mohsin Khan the aggressive playmaker made his intentions clear driving in from both sides. With the tall Irrappa and captain Prashant too chipping in effectively, the Dharwad side nosed ahead at 26-25 with Mohsin effecting a fast break.

Thereafter though Anuj did find the hoop from far for two successive three-pointers, SAI boys maintained their tempo to cruise through.

Beagles too seemed to be fighting a lost cause at 11-20 but rallied brilliantly through Kiran in the dying moments to upset YOSC.

The Sports School girls played consistently well in this tournament and with Preeth controlling play efficiently Deepa and Kruthika took on the mantle of getting the points.

Viveks did match the winners till 25-all in the third quarter after changing ends at 21-23.

Poor shooting let them down in the final moments and with barely 45 seconds left rains came down heavily.

But the half an hour break with the scores reading 31-40 was not to change the course of the match. SS, Vidyanagar won 42-31.

The results (semifinal league):

Boys: SAI (Dharwad) 36 (Mohsin Khan 10, Irrappa 10) bt JSC 30 (Alok 8); Beagles 32 (Kiran 13) bt YOSC 30 (Chirag 17, Naresh 8); SAI (Dharwad) 43 (Prashant 17, Sharan 11) bt YOSC 39 (Naresh 16, Chirag 9); JSC 56 (Ritesh 13, Alok 18) bt Beagles 49 (Pranav 17, Kiran 13).

Girls: SS, Vidyanagar 42 (Deepa S. 17, Kruthika 10) bt Vivek SC 31 (Reeth 9, Chaitra 9); Beagles 47 (Nisha Ann 22, Tejaswini 10) bt IBBC 28 (Goldia 15); SS, Vidyanagar 48 (Sheetal 14, Soumya 10) bt IBBC 14; Vivek SC 41 (Reeth 9, Chaitra 7, Arundathi 7) bt Beagles 37 (Nisha 16, Sophia 11, Merin 9). — Our Sports Reporter

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