The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : ONGC to meet IOB in final

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Sunday, Aug 13, 2006

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Sport - Basketball

ONGC to meet IOB in final

Sports Reporter

CHENNAI: Two of the best players and stars in their own right — Trideep Rai and Riyazuddin of Western Railway could only sit and grieve wondering what went wrong against ONGC in the semifinals of the Magnolia Trophy all-India basketball tournament at the Montford Indoor Stadium here on Saturday.

ONGC, through a team effort, defeated the fancied Railway side 84-78 at extra time, after the full-time score had read 72 each.

With two minutes and 15 seconds to go in extra time, ONGC took the lead with a 3-pointer from Murali Krishna. Desraj, who came up with a stellar performance, then increased the tally with a 2-pointer.

Western Railway did all it could with its arsenal but fell short.

Despite losing Nishant Kumar and Murali Krishna in the crucial stages of the match, ONGC stayed composed to emerge a deserving winner.

Turnaround

At half-time, the lead for Railways was a mere three points (34-31). But the real-turnaround came towards the end of the second quarter when ONGC, down 22-34, struck.

Three consecutive 3-pointers by Desraj, Dinesh Kumar and Suresh, in a matter of three minutes, changed the whole complexion of the game.

Western Railway lost the services of Ranjeet Singh early in the first quarter due to a shoulder injury.

Undaunted, the team kept scoring consistently and lead 19-14. But the key for ONGC was the exceptional role played by every hoopster.

In another last four clash, IOB, as expected, had it easy against Karnataka 59-42.

The results:

Semifinals: ONGC 84 (Desraj 28, Sridhar 19, Suresh Kumar 22) bt W. Rly. 78 (Trideep Rai 31, Riyazuddin 19); IOB 59 (Sukhavaneshwar 17, Mihir Pandey 14) bt Karnataka 42 (Srinivas Gowda 13, Sanjay Rajan 10).

Quarterfinals: ONGC 74 (Desraj 21, Suresh Kumar 19) bt Central Excise (Kochi) 61 (Subash J Shenoy 16, Joe Antony 14, Vivek 14, Shinumon 12); W. Rly. 73 (Trideep Rai 21, Riyazuddin 18, Ranjeet Singh 16) bt S. Rly. 50 (Saravana Rajan 14, Bernard Phillips 11, Azariah Prabhakar 10).

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