The Hindu : Sport : Kollam squeaks past Kannur

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Kollam squeaks past Kannur

Principal Correspondent

ALAPPUZHA: Kollam went through many anxious moments before squeaking into the girls’ final of the 32nd Kerala State junior basketball championship at the Municipal Stadium here on Wednesday night.

Kollam, last year’s runner-up, threw away a nine-point last quarter lead before a shrewd steal and a smart basket from P.K. Smruthi helped the side edge past a fighting Kannur.

Living on the edge

Kollam lived on the edge all through and things began to go seriously wrong with less than a minute to go. Substitute M. Athira suddenly turned the semifinal on its head with a couple of lively baskets and gave Kannur a 46-43 lead. But Kollam bounced back and won the thriller.

“We were expecting this from Kannur, we knew they’d come back,” said the Kollam coach Rajan David. “But our good early lead saved us.”

Smruthi and centre Stephy Nixon, coming back after a long break, topscored for Kollam.

Kottayam teams advance

Earlier, Kottayam boys and girls marched to the finals but in contrasting ways. While the girls suffered a small starting problem before defeating Thrissur 63-53, the Kottayam boys walked over Wynad for a 51-27 victory.

The Kottayam-Thrissur girls semifinal was virtually a fight between Mount Carmel School and Thrissur’s SAI Sports Hostel. Griya Susan Varghese, who uncorked a lovely longranger and who was fluent with freethrows early, helped Thrissur race to a 9-6 lead in the first quarter. But it was all Kottayam in the next two quarters.

“We were fumbling in the opening session. Only by the third quarter we could really settle down, get our shots on the board,” said the Kottayam centre Ashey Mathew, the defending champion’s top scorer with 18 points.

The results (semifinals): Boys: Kottayam 51 (Aby Sony 15, Justin Mathew Jacob 14, Jobin Varghese 9) bt Wynad 27 (Sarath Mohan 10).

Girls: Kollam 49 (P.K. Smruthi 16, Stephy Nixon 14) bt Kannur P.S. Neenumol 15, M.D. Lisha 14); Kottayam 63 (Ashey Mathew 18, Shija Joseph 16, Sona M. Saji 11) bt Thrissur 53 (Griya Susan Varghese 20, Merlin Baby 12).

Tuesday’s late match: Boys quarterfinal: Malappuram 55 (Sainul Nisam 13, S. Padmagirish 11, Basil Philip 11) bt Kannur 25.

Muthoot Group in final

Muthoot Group defeated MG University 25-22, 22-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-12 and entered the men’s final of the second A.P. Varkey memorial all-Kerala volleyball tournament at Udyamperoor.

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