The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : ICF survives Signals' onslaught

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Thursday, Aug 05, 2004

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Sport - Basketball

ICF survives Signals' onslaught

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, AUG. 4. Signals (Delhi), with a late surge, closed the gap on Integral Coach Factory (Chennai) but the local outfit hung on to its slender lead and recorded its second win 78-72 in a Group `C' encounter of the IOB-Ace Club Magnolia Trophy All-India basketball tournament at the Montfort indoor stadium here on Wednesday.

After the stunning victory over Central Excise (Kochi), Indian Juniors came up with a shoddy performance against Diesel Locomotive Works (Varanasi) to lose 69-95 in a Group `D' match. Earlier, Central Excise's 80-65 win over AOC Centre kept its hopes alive in the same group and there is a chance for a three-way tie with a lot depending on the Central Excise-DLW tie on Thursday.

All the teams seem to relish the indoor conditions and have been going all out to show their mettle. However, only a few have managed a sustained performance like ICF. It started well today but lost its grip for a brief period in the second half. However, it brought things under control to down Signals.

Ball handler Tony Leslie, who was feeding and scoring superbly off first passes, did not do well in the second session as some fancy passes and poor attempts saw Signals cut down the lead to eight points from 37-51 at half-time. ICF's shooting dipped in the third quarter and went down further in the fourth. It scored only 30 points to Signals' 35 in the latter half.

Thanks to its first half show, ICF still held the advantage before Sikkandar and Aswin displayed some steady shooting to take it home.

Puzzling Juniors

Indian Juniors' defeat was puzzling. Having taken a 31-14 lead in the first half, the Juniors floundered so much that DLW first caught up and then went ahead. Yadwinder committed four fouls in the first quarter itself and this affected the team. Too many fouls, erratic attempts and poor finishing forced the Juniors to trail 36-56 at half-time and 52-72 at the end of the third quarter.

DLW, cashing in on the breakthrough, scored briskly through Mihir and Satheesh. The Juniors' defence crumbled under pressure and the team never recovered.

Excise makes amends

Central Excise did not commit the same mistake it did against Indian Juniors. Moving steadily ahead, it led 22-13, 38-30, 59-48 as centre Subash Shenoy, Sunny Thomas, Joseph John and Monish Wilson kept the momentum going.

The results: ICF 81 (Sikkandar 22, Aswin 18, Rajan 17, Tony Leslie 15) beat Signals 72 (A. Khan 21, Pramod 15, A. Babu 11)

Central Excise (Kochi) 80 (Joseph John 10, Monish Wilson 10, Sunny Thomas 19, Subash Shenoy 17) beat AOC Centre 65 (P.B. Babu 20, Pandey 13, Satyanarayana 17).

DLW 95 (Mihir 35, Sudhir 14, Satheesh 21) beat Indian Juniors 69 (Talwinderjit Singh 27, Yadwinder Singh 10).

Tuesday's results: Indian Juniors 88 (Talwinderjit Singh 15, Yadwinder Singh 10, Vijobi 17, Jagdip Singh 24) bt Central Excise 86 (Subash Shenoy 24, Sunny Thomas 23, Vivek 16).

Western Railway (Mumbai) 84 (Riaz-ud-din 33, Tridip Roy 23, Sunil Kumar 15) bt Artillery 77 (Sugbir Singh 24, Pradeep 16, Chary 15).

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