BAMBOLIM: Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai (IOB) secured a 74-71 victory over Vijaya Bank, Bengaluru to book the berth in the Men’s final at the 30th Federation Cup Basketballl championships at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, Goa University, Bambolim, on Sunday.
IOB were slow to get out of the gates struggling to knock down shots in the early going. Towards the end of the second half, with Vijaya Bank holding on to a slim lead, IOB centre Vineeth Mathew got into a tussle with Vijaya Bank forward Navin, resulting in both players getting ejected. This seemed to have fired up the IOB players.
The match came down to the final minutes with the scores tied at 71 apiece and under a minute left to play. After a couple of botched possessions from both teams, IOB’s veteran Hareesh Koroth hit the game-winning 3-pointer with 2.8 second left on the clock to give his team a 3-point lead. Uppar could not connect on his team’s final attempt and IOB ended up securing a 74-71 victory.
In the first men’s semifinal, defending champions ONGC, Dehradun defeated Army Red side, featuring prominent players from the Services team that won the Senior Nationals this year.
In the Women’s semi-finals, Kerala beat Telangana. Kerala stuck to their game plan, running their offense through centre Stephy Nixon and forward Jeena PS. Both the Kerala international players delivered for Kerala, using their size and skill in the post to outmatch the Telangana frontcourt. The dynamic duo put their entire offensive arsenal on display with an array of post moves, finishing around the rim with both hands and knocking down close jumpers. Telangana did manage to stay within striking distance of Kerala in the first half, led by R Ramya (14 points) and their most consistent player P Divya (14 points). But Kerala pulled away in the second half mainly owing to the stellar play of Jeena and Stephy, who kept firing away.
Anjana PG provided support with a 15-point contribution for Kerala and Rojamol came off the bench to further bolster Kerala’s rebounding advantage with 12 rebounds. Kerala outrebounded Telangana by a huge 65 to 38 margin, giving away very few second chance opportunities to Telangana.
Kerala sailed through the fourth quarter with a double-digit lead, ending up with a 68-54 victory and sealing a berth in the final.
The second women’s semifinal was a battle between two Chhattisgarh-based teams – Chhattisgarh state and South-eastern Central Railways, Bilaspur (SECR).
With Poonam’s slow start, Saranjeet Kaur stepped up for Chhattisgarh finding her touch from deep and breaking out for transition buckets. Down by two points entering the second half, Poonam came alive to score all 21 of her team’s third quarter buckets. Chhattisgarh’s guards Sangeeta Das (9 assists) and Riya Varma (8 assists) improved on their lobs to Poonam, helping her catch right in the shot pocket. Poonam added another 16 points in the fourth to help her team outscore SECR 31 to 16 in the last period turning the game into a blowout. On the back on Poonam’s mammoth 46-point effort, Chhattisgarh clinched a spot in the final where they will face the Kerala women.
