The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Central Excise, KSEB triumph

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Saturday, Aug 13, 2005

Sport

Sport - Basketball

Central Excise, KSEB triumph

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: Powered by a new young force, KSEB defeated SAI (Thalassery) 70-50 and bagged the women's title in the third RSC all-Kerala basketball tournament which concluded at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium here on Friday night.

Central Excise, Kochi, won the men's title after staving off a strong challenge from the new team, BSNL (Thiruvananthapuram) beating it 73-67.

The match was a tight affair but BSNL lost the edge in the last quarter after two of its stars, M. Anoop and Monish Wilson, were sent off for committing five fouls.

The Thiruvananthapuram-based KSEB women's side wears a new look now.

With many of its stars quitting the game, only two seasoned regulars, P. Lajitha and Ambily Thomas now remain in the team.

The rest, Sonia Joseph, Lisa Rani, Seena Joseph and Ligi Peter are all youngsters who sparkled in the State junior scene a year or two ago.

Team on its last legs?

Ironically, despite the fresh face, there is a general feeling that the KSEB team is on its last legs. That's because the young girls are all on a year's contract who would desert the ship if they get a permanent job elsewhere.

The match was close in the early stages but KSEB, with the consistent Lajitha and Sonia doing the bulk of the scoring, won comfortably.

The results (finals):

Men: Central Excise, Kochi 73 (Subash Shenoy 24, Santosh John 18) bt BSNL, Tvm 67 (T.S. Abhilash 22, Bobit Mathew 21).

Women: KSEB, Tvm (P. Lajitha 23, Sonia Joseph 15) bt SAI, Thalassery 50 (Deepa Mathew 16, I.P.Nithya 13).

Veteran men: Old is Gold 69 (K.M. George 24, N.Chandrasekharan 20) bt Thrissur Veterans 31 (V.A. George 14).

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