ONGC (Dehradun) posted it second straight win defeating South Central Railway (Secunderabad) 64-45 in the 48th all-India basketball tournament for men for the PSG Trophy at the PSG Tech courts here on Wednesday.
The ONGC squad was packed with internationals stars. And, they got into business right from the start. Mohit Bhandari, M. Anoop, Trideep Rai and Riyazuddin scored a basket apiece and put the team on top (15-7) at the end of the first period.
The SCR men, on the other hand, shot from outside for most part as they found it hard to penetrate into the water-tight defence set by their rivals. It did no good for the team and the first points for the team came after four minutes.
In the second quarter, Shabeer Ahamed joined the party and, with it, piled up the agony on SCR. He sneaked into the citadel time and again and reached the ring with ease. Shabeer hit four baskets and Anoop three as the duo further enhanced the lead margin to 35-12.
After the lemon break, the SCR men looked a transformed lot. They attacked a little more vigorously. Indian Railways’ star S.T. Murali Krishna baffled the ONGC line-up with his outside shooting skills.
He scored three threes in the space of two minutes. T.S. Rao chipped in with a couple of twos to cut short the lead (45-31) in the third session.
In the final phase, ONGC tightened its defence and, with Trideep in full flow, it was all over for SCR.
In the 11th all-India tournament for women for the CRI Pumps Trophy, South East Central Railway (Bilaspur), thanks to its dynamic duo Seema Singh (23 pts) and M. Pushpa (22 pts), drubbed South Western Railway (Hubli) 84-48.
The results:
Men (PSG Trophy): ONGC (Dehradun) 64 (Trideep Rai 19, M. Anoop 10) bt SCR (Secunderabad) 45 (S.T. Murali Krishna 19).
Women (CRI Pumps Trophy): SECR (Bilaspur) 84 (Seema Singh 23, M. Pushpa 22) bt SWR (Hubli) 48 (L.S. Savitha 18); S. Rly (Chennai) 71 (Apoorva 24, Geethu Anna Jose 12, Neena Harindran 12) bt Eastern Railway 45 (Kala Dhanraj 17).
