St Francis Boys overcome Central GST Customs, Titans ease past Victory Playground

St Francis Boys pulled off a major upset as they got past Central GST Customs 69-56, while Titans cruised to a 74-43 win over Victory Playground in the GM Sampath Kumar Annual League Basketball Championship at YMCA Secunderabad on Saturday.

It was supposed to be a clash between the men and the boys but by the end of the game they boys outsmarted the men. St Francis Boys, who had graduated from Level II to Level I, proved quite a handful for the experienced Customs hoopsters. St Francis Boys led 35-26 at half-time.

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The experienced taxmen started well with Vinay and Venkat Reddy playing in tandem to score 12 points. Peter, who scored a game high of 36 points, kept St Francis Boys within striking distance by chipping in with seven points.

In the second quarter, Central GST continued chipping in with baskets at regular intervals scoring 14 points. But St Francis Boys turned things around as they upped their offense through precise passing and fast break points. They scored 26 points with Shoaib writing his name in the scorers list. Peter scored two consecutive 3-pointers as St Francis sat pretty (35-26) at half-time.

After the breather, Central GST regrouped and restricted St Francis’ fast break points, thereby restricting their rivals to only 10 points. In turn Harish and Vijay along with Venkat Reddy scored 16 points to reduce the deficit to just 3 points (45–42) by the end of the third quarter.

In an exciting fourth quarter, Vinay Yadav scored a 3-pointer and scored off a rebound to reduce the deficit to just 1 point at 47-48. Thereafter, the match went neck-and-neck for a few minutes.

With five minutes left on the clock, the scores were level 52-52. St Francis scored three 3-pointers – two from Nitish and one from Faraz – to take a decisive 61-52 lead.

Central GST tried hard for a comeback, but Peter and Faraz were chipping in with baskets at regular intervals to finally win the match 69-56.

In another match Titans breezed past Victory Playgrounds 74-43 after leading 40-27 at half-time. Chris and Nandit scored 18 points each while Srujan got 15 for Titans.

Results: St Francis Boys 69 (Peter 36; Nitish 9; Faraz 8; Shoaib 6) beat Central GST & Customs 56 (Venkat Reddy 25; Vinay 16; Harish 6) Half-time: 35-26.

Titans 74 (Chris 18; Nandit 18; Srujan 15) beat Victory Playground 43 (Nikhil 13; Bilal 11; Sriniketh 11) Half-time: 40-27.