The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Cup of joy for ONGC

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 20, 2006

Sport

Sport - Basketball

Cup of joy for ONGC

Sports Reporter

Coimbatore: ONGC, Dehradun, played a sensible last two quarters to oust favourite Punjab 69-58 in the 42nd all-India basketball tournament for men for the PSG Trophy at the PSG Tech courts here on Saturday.

The first quarter was evenly contested. However, in the second quarter, Desraj (15 points), Nishant and S. Sridhar (14 each) damaged the Punjab defence to help the team post a comfortable 11-point lead.

In the third quarter, Punjab was on a song. Vijayakumar (16), in the company of Gagan, made merry on the flanks. The pressure was beginning to show on the ONGC camp. Punjab capitalised on the costly lapses in the ONGC citadel to score 25 points and reduced the margin to 46-47.

Knowing that it was now or never, Punjab continued to apply the pressure and ONGC succumbed, but only for a brief period. In the last five minutes, the ONGC players went on a shooting spree. They scored 20 points as against Punjab's 10 and that made all the difference towards the end.

Earlier, defending champion Central Excise and Customs, Kochi, defeated an off-colour Western Railway, Mumbai, for the third place.

In the State-level tournament for schoolboys, St. Paul's, Salem humbled MSP Solai Nadar, Dindigul, 80-62 for the title.

The results:

Final (men): ONGC, Dehradun 69 (S. Sridhar 14, Desraj 15, Nishant 14) bt Punjab 58 (Vijayakumar 16, Gagan 11). Third place: Central Excise and Customs, Kochi 70 (V. Vivek 23, Joe Antony 24) bt Western Railway, Mumbai 36.

State-level (final): St. Paul's, Salem 80 (S. Ram Kumar 29, G. Srinivasan 17) bt MSP Solai Nadar, Dindigul 62.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport