Team Herald
sports@herald-goa.com
BAMBOLIM: In a clash between the top two teams in Group B, Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai (IOB) achieved a third blowout victory 71-47, giving them an assured spot in the semi-finals on the third day of the 30th Federation Cup National Basketball Championship for Men and Women held at the Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium, Goa University, Bambolim, on Friday.
Both teams had the size and speed to match up against each other in what was expected to be an enthralling affair.
However, IOB turned the game into a one-sided match yet again, leaving Army in the dust right from the first quarter. IOB seemed like the more skilled and experienced unit using good ball movement to knock down open shots. Pratham Singh’s outside shooting was on-point yet again as he drained five triples off nine attempts. IOB’s veteran centre Vineeth Mathew hurt Army on the inside, working in the post on his way to 17 points and 15 rebounds.
Defensively, IOB managed to contain Army with active hands, close out on shooters and clogging the passing lanes. Siva Balan had five steals for IOB and finished with a decent all-round game that included 11 points and five assists. Mayur Bhat was the lone high scorer for the Army with 22 points in the losing effort.
Fighting for the second spot in Group B, the Telangana sealed an easy 66-44 victory over Karnataka to advance into the women semi-finals.
Karnataka’s young team got off to a quick start leading 13-9 at the end of the first quarter. But the experienced Telangana side, all employed with the South Central Railways based in Hyderabad, got their offensive rhythm going in the second quarter. R. Ramya (19 points) and P. Divya (18 points) helped Telangana outscore Karnataka 37 to 14 in the second and third quarters and build a huge lead.
The entire Telangana side crashed the offensive glass, pulling down 28 offensive rebounds leading to 14 second chance points. On the defensive end, Telangana pressured Karnataka’s ball handlers forcing 23 turnovers. M. Gayathri from Telangana had 5 steals to go with 15 points and 4 assists. Apart from Ranjitha (17 points), no other player got into double digits for Karnataka.
The final women’s game later in the afternoon saw the mighty Kerala team taking on hosts Goa. Not surprisingly, Kerala women broke no sweat in defeating Goa 35-17. Goa was heavily overmatched both in terms of size and skill against the undefeated Kerala team, who were the runners-up in the senior nationals earlier in the year. After a 15-2 first quarter start, Kerala emptied its bench, who played the rest of the game and cruised to the win. Alisha J was the highest scorer for Goa with five points.
For Kerala, Elizabeth and Kavitha scored eight points each. Kerala is now closer to being assured of a semi-final spot, in which case it will most likely face Telangana. Defending champions ONGC, Dehradun took on a confident young Vijaya Bank to established a 46 to 18 lead at halftime and used their bench through most of the second half to coast to a 64-32 blowout victory.
Home team Don Bosco Oratory men took on Kerala Police in the last game of the day with both teams searching for their first win.
Kerala Police were playing their second game of the day after losing a tight hard-fought game against North-western Railways earlier in the day. The Goa men were yet again overmatched, finding it difficult to stop Kerala’s perimeter players. Jijo, Shreejith and Jomon all scored in double digits for Kerala as they raced past Goa to a comfortable 64-38 victory. Abraham and Charles had 9 points each for Goa in the loss.
South-East Central Railways, Bilaspur (SECR) women were high on confidence after pulling off two close victories on the first two days. Today morning, they took on a young Delhi team that did not have the services of the Singh sisters to register a comfortable 62-47 victory to move into semi-finals.
