The Hindu : Sport : ICF lifts Arokya Trophy

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Tuesday, May 08, 2007
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ICF lifts Arokya Trophy

Sports Correspondent

Virudhunagar: Integral Coach Factory, Chennai lifted the Arokya Trophy after defeating defending champion, Indian Bank, Chennai 64-62 in men's section in a hard-fought last match of the semifinal round robin league of the fifth annual State-level basketball tournament at KVS HSS ground, Virudhunagar on Sunday night.

ICF emerged winner with an all-win record, while Indian Bank finished runner-up. BSNL, Chennai beat Southern Railway, Chennai 78-72 for its only win to finish third.

ICF, which made a rousing start with Sikkander Oli Raja and Ashwin basketing fluently, led 18-14 at the end of the first quarter and 40-27 at the interval.

Sunny shines

However former international and veteran Sunny entered the court at the fag end of the second quarter for Indian Bank and played for the whole of the third quarter. He tightened the defence, fed well to others and basketed at crucial moments to help the bank team narrow the lead to 48-42.

However in the fourth quarter, Sunny rested himself and former international Saravanan came in.

Bank narrowed the lead to 60-58 but Sikkander's two fine baskets saw ICF lead 64-58 with hardly a minute and a half to go.

Sunny re-entered but it was too late. Bank when down fighting 62-64 with Sunny firing the last basket in with three seconds to go.

The results: ICF 64 (Sikkander Oli Raja 28, Bhoobalan 10) bt Indian Bank 62 (Amarnath Gopi 16, Thangadurai 19); BSNL, Chennai 78 (Vinoth 20, Mohanraj 12, Dillyraj 10) bt Southern Railway 72 (Sivasanker 24, Pasupathy 15, Navaneethan 16).

Vijaya Bank qualifies

Vijaya Bank, Bangalore beat Army Ordnance Corps, Andhra 72-70 in a closely fought match for its second win in the three-team Group `D' league and qualified for the men's super-league in the Tamilnad Mercantile Bank Trophy All India basketball tournament at Tharuvai Stadium, Tuticorin on Monday.

Southern Railway, Chennai and Central Railway, Mumbai from group `A' and Western Railway, Mumbai and KSEB, Thiruvananthapuram from group `B' qualified for the women's super-league.

The results: Men: Vijaya Bank, Bangalore 72 (Baravarj 18, Aushin 10) bt AOC, Andhra 70 (Sivanagaraju 15, Babu 14).

Women: Southern Railway, Chennai 75 (Gokila 32, Deepa 22) bt LMR BBC, Erode 20 (Thamrai Selvi 10); South Western Railway, Hubli 59 (Rajeswari 16) bt South Central Railway, Secundrabad 58 (Kawaljeet 20); Western Railway, Mumbai 48 (Menaka Antony 15) bt KSEB, Thiruvanthapuram 31 (Litty Mathew 14).

Sunday's results: Men: South Central Railway, Secundrabad 76 (Prasad 18, Tirupathi 10) bt KSEB, Thiruvanthapuram 73 (Abilash 21, Manoj 14); BSNL, Chennai 60 (Gnanavel 32, Gokul 13) bt Armed Police, Madurai 15 (Sankar 15).

Women: KSEB, Thiruvanthapuram 58 (Sonia Joseph 20, Lajitha 13) bt South Western Railway, Hubli 49 (Smitha 22, Nimisha 13); Western Railway, Mumbai 51 (Sheeja 14, Suji Kurian 11) bt South Central Railway, Secundrabad 40 (Sindhu 10).

Muthu scores hat-trick

A hat-trick by striker Muthu helped AGORC, Chennai defeat St. Joseph's College, Tiruchi 3-0 and enter the semifinals of the 24th Champion Club football tournament, for the Universal Trophy, at Krishna Stadium, Velangudi near Karaikudi on Monday.

Muthu scored in the 24th, 44th and 84th minutes.

The other quarterfinal match between Indian Bank, Chennai and Sporting Union Football Club, Chennai was abandoned due to heavy rain after 18 minutes of the start. At that time there was no scoring. These teams would meet again at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

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