The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Ernakulam men post easy win over Palakkad

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Friday, Nov 24, 2006
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Ernakulam men post easy win over Palakkad

Principal Correspondent

Manjeri: Form played true in the men's section while in the women's section last year's winner Thiruvananthapuram and runner-up Kannur suffered defeats on the second day of the Akbar Travels 51st State senior basketball championships at the GBHSS floodlit court here on Thursday.

In the men's section holder Ernakulam and runner-up Thiruvananthapuram scored easy wins while strong contender Idukki served notice with a 66-54 win over Thrissur.

But in the women's section, Thiruvananthapuram, missing its KSEB stars, was a parody of the side that won the title last year.

Made up of mostly schoolgirls, the team failed to click as a unit and lost 20-35 to Kozhikode. Erratic shooting and mispasses didn't do them any favour at all.

Kozhikode,coming after a 30-6 thrashing at the hands of Kollam, played marginally better than its rival and converted more baskets when it mattered. Thiruvananthapuram managed to stay level with its taller rivals in the first quarter.

But Kozhikode wrested control in the second quarter to take a six-point lead at half-time. In an error-prone second half, Kozhikode had no difficultly in maintaining its lead till the end.

The Kottayam-Kannur match was much closer with Kottayam winning 61-58. In a match of fluctuating fortunes where the lead changed hands several times, Kottayam turned on the heat in the third quarter. It scored 13 consecutive points to knock the wind out of Kannur's sails.

Kottayam, trailing 37-41 at that time, took an eight-point lead which turned out be decisive.

With fine man-to-man marking, Kottayam was able to prevent Kannur from scoring. Kannur didn't do itself any favour by messing up a few free-throws which it got in the last quarter. Kottayam held its nerve to come out as deserving winner.

The results:

Men:

Ernakulam 54 (Vivek 18, Santosh John 14, Joe Antony 10) bt Palakkad 43 (Ajesh 18); Idukki 66 (Monish Wilson 17, Bobit Mathew 12, T.S. Abhilash 10) bt Thrissur 54 (Alex Charley 12, Fedrick Pereira 12); Pathanamthitta 72 (Binumon Augustine 25, A.R. Akbar 15) bt Kozhikode 53 (Nibin Joseph 17, R.T. Vishnu 11); Kannur 35 (K.R. Nikhil 15) bt Kollam 13; Thiruvananthapuram 53 (R. Manoj 14, S. Dipu 10, K. Harish 10) bt Kasargod 30 (A. Shibu 10); Wayanad 72 (Ullas Jose 24, Dhanesh 15) bt Malappuram 56; Kottayam 73 (Bobin Mathew 17) bt Kollam 20.

Women:

Kottayam 61 (K.S. Anu 13) bt Kannur 58 (Sonia Joseph 23, Seema Joseph 16); Thrissur bt Malappuram 33-7, Kollam bt Kozhikode 30-6; Kozhikode bt Thiruvananthapuram 35-20.

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