The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Indian Army downs Punjab Cagers, enters final

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Tuesday, Oct 02, 2007
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Sport - Basketball

Indian Army downs Punjab Cagers, enters final

Principal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Sambhaji Kadam and Dalip Kumar steered Indian Army to an exhilarating one-point win over the last year’s finalist, Punjab Cagers, and cruised into the final of the 35th all-India Master Prithvi Nath Sharma memorial basketball tournament here on Monday. Indian Army won 67-66 and will meet either Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Chennai or ONGC, Dehra Dun, in the final.

In a match of fluctuating fortunes, Punjab Cagers rallied brilliantly in the third quarter after being down 31-23 at the half-time, to level at 40-40.

Kadam stole the show when he put Army ahead with three seconds remaining in the match. He then combined nicely with Dalip Kumar to thwart Punjab Cagers from forcing an extra-time.

Dalip top scored with 24 points while Jay Ram played anchor with 17 as Indian Army rode on to the inspiration of beating the defending champion IOB in the league. In a virtual rehearsal of the women’s final, Southern Railway, Chennai, defeated MTNL, Delhi, 79-64 in the last round-robin match to top the four-team league. The two teams will meet again on Tuesday in the final.

The results:

Men (semifinals): Indian Army 67 (Dalip Kumar 24, Jay Ram 17, Sambhaji Kadam 14, Navneet Singh 10) beat Punjab Cagers 66 (Mandeep Singh 17, Jagdeep Singh 14, Harpreet 12, Amrit Pal 10); ONGC, Dehra Dun v Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai.

League: Prithvi Nath Club 81 (Manni 33, Sudhir 20, Praveen 16) beat India Juniors 58 (Nitin 21, Vishesh 10, Dishant 9).

Women (league): Southern Railway, Chennai 79 (Geetu Anna Jose 22, Anita 17, Adhi Rai 6) beat MTNL, Delhi, 64 (Pratima Singh 19, Raspreet 12, Prasanti 8, Sheeba 6). South East Central Railway 82 (Seema Singh 34, Bharti 12, Akansha 9, Anju Lakra 9) beat Western Railway 66 (Siji Joseph 10, Lincy Joseph 10, Meena K. 8).

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