Rail Coach Factory (Kapurthala) staged a brilliant fightback through Bijender in the last quarter to oust a fighting North Frontier Railway (NFR), Guwahati, 80-74 in a Group ‘B’ league clash of the all-India basketball tournament for men for the Nachimuthu Gounder Cup at the VOC Park Corporation Sports Complex courts here on Saturday.
For the Kapurthala men, it was their second straight win.
RCF lacked the bench strength as three of its key players were out due to injuries. But it still had the fire power to shoot down a tired NFR in the final quarter.
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It was NFR which called the shots in the first two quarters. It played quite aggressively upfront and kept the scoreboard ticking with ease. RCF struggled a bit during this period but managed to stay close.
In the third quarter, K.R. Bijender, Carmel and Harmanpreet Singh attacked with vigour for RCF. They reached the ring with ease, while the rest of the bunch chipped in to a great extent. The team also tightened the defence and, with it, cut short the scoring chances of the NFR men.
The trio further tormented NFR in the final quarter with some brilliant layups and put the team in command for the first time in the match. NFR applied the pressure midway through but the damage was already done.
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“After the third quarter, we could not come up with good finishing shots. We failed to co-ordinate as well. And, that cost us dear,” said Ram A. Yadav, NFR’s coach.
“We have not been practising as well for the last six months and that showed on the endurance levels of our players,” he added.
Big win for Income TaxEven as RCF worked hard for its win, Income Tax (Chennai) opened its campaign with an easy 94-74 win over Kerala Police. Ram Kumar (25 pts) and Rikin Pethani (19 pts) did the bulk of the damage for the Kerala team.
The results: Men: RCF (Kapurthala) 80 (K.R. Bijender 24, Carmel 18, Harmanpreet Singh 18) bt North Frontier Rly (Guwahati) 74 (Stalin Sagayaraj 20, Ajay Pratap 12); Income Tax (Chennai) 94 (Ram Kumar 25, Rikin Pethani 19, Hakeem 13) bt Kerala Police 74 (Jomon 23, Anumohandas 18, Sreejith 11).
On Friday: RCF 73 (Bijender 29, A. Santhosh 17, Carmel 12) bt Kerala Police 55 (Jomon 17, Anu Mohonds 16, S. Shon 10).
Women: S. Rly (Chennai) 53 (Rajapriyadharshini 24) bt Northern Frontier Railway (Guwahati) 49 (R. Geetha 12, Anju Sidharthen 10, Annai George 10); KSEB 74 (P.S. Jeena 19, K.S. Pooja Mol 18, Stephy Nixon 15) bt CDBA 33; SCR (Secunderabad) 80 (P. Dhivya 25, L. Suganya 17, M. Gayathri 16, R. Ramya 14) bt SECR (Bilaspur) 55 (Bharti Netam 10).