Defending champion ONGC (Dehradun) played a brilliant last two quarters to oust Indian Army (New Delhi) 66-46 for the men’s title in the Golden Jubilee all-India basketball tournament for the PSG Trophy on Wednesday.
ONGC was racy at the start. Murali Krishna dunked the team’s first points and Riyazuddin and Briguvanshi boosted it further with booming two pointers.
Indian Army, which shocked favourite IOB (Chennai) in the semifinals, played a waiting game until then. It took some time to settle down and once it did, the players came out with their guns blazing.
Gopal Ram, Jairam Hat and Arockia Babu fired baskets with ease and the team came from behind to levels scores at 14 at the end of the first quarter.
The Army men continued from where they left in the second and took a 22-19 lead. But ONGC shot back through Yadwinder Singh, who scored three successive two pointers to steer the team to a 31-25 lead at the halfway mark. Senior India star Amrit Pal scored 14 points.
S. Rly. women stunnedIn the CRI Trophy all-India tournament for women, last year’s semifinalists Western Railway (Mumbai) stunned defending champion Southern Railway (Chennai) 55-43 for the crown.
The results (final): Men: ONGC (Dehradun) 66 bt Indian Army (New Delhi) 46. Women: Western Railway (Mumbai) 55 (S. Manisha Dange 13, B. Sangeeta 12, Renu Maurya 10) bt Southern Railway (Chennai) 43 (Alagu Tamil Mozhi 13).
