The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Merchants SC grabs title

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Sunday, Apr 17, 2005

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Merchants SC grabs title

Sports Reporter

BANGALORE: Merchants Sports Club won the State sub-junior boys basketball championship for the first time in 20 years when it quelled a determined Greens SC at 43-41 in an all-Davangere semifinal league clash to finish with an all win record.

Mount Club's 36-32 win over Shetty's, Mangalore, paved the way for Vivek's SC to annexe the girls trophy, after a three-way tie, at the Sree Kanteerava stadium outdoor courts here on Saturday evening.

Greens, which trailed 19-26 at half-time and 28-41 after the third quarter, almost pulled off a remarkable recovery before it ran out of time. Ananth and Abhijith combined brilliantly in the last quarter to affect the recovery accounting for 13 points against Merchants' two. For Merchants Sharath was the chief scorer but it was Harish and Robin who kept the momentum going with eight points each in the first three quarters.

Shetty's went into the last semifinal league match with two wins against Mount Club's one win-one loss record. A 22-18 half-time scoreline suggested that Shetty's would score its third straight win. But Mounts thanks to its tall players — Kavya Raman and Iravati Guha — ensured that the teams went into the last quarter with barely a basket separating them. Kavya used her height and strength to good effect in the final moments to level the scores at 28-all and with Sagarika Shyam too netting a basket, Mounts surged ahead for a 36-32 victory.

The results (semifinal league): Boys: Merchants (Davangere) 43 (Sharath 15) bt Greens (Davangere) 41; IBC 28 bt Vivekananda (Mandya) 26. Final placings: 1. Merchants, 2. Greens, 3. IBC, 4. Vivekananda (Mandya).

Girls: Mounts 36 (Iravati Guha 13, Kavya Raman 11) bt Shetty's (Mangalore) 32; Vivek's SC 37 bt Jayanagar SC 19. Final placings: 1. Vivek's, 2. Mounts Club, 3. Shetty's, 4. Jayanagar SC.

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