Mahendra Hills Basketball Club and St Francis Boys earned the last two berths in Level I with comfortable victories over State Bank of India (Hyderabad) and BITS (Hyderabad) respectively in the GM Sampath Kumar Annual League Basketball Championship at YMCA Secunderabad on Thursday.
Mahendra Hills Basketball Club thrashed SBI 72-57 and St Francis Boys overcame BITS 55-43.
Mahendra Hills dominated from the start as their hoopsters scored 21 points through Tanay, Daniel and Tagore. On the other hand, SBI were restricted to just nine points, mostly by Sukumar, by Mahendra Hills with a tight defense. Mahendra Hills led 21-9 by the end of the first quarter.
Sam unstoppable for SBI
In the second quarter, the experienced SBI staged a comeback scoring 24 points as Sam was just unstoppable. He scored 18 of the 24 points. However, a late surge by Tanay and Daniel’s 3-pointer enabled Mahendra Hills to score 17 points and thus they led 38-33 at half-time.
Mamata Medical College & Golden Phoenixes advance to Level I in GM Sampath basketball
After change of ends, Mahendra Hills regrouped and in the equally contested third quarter SBI scored 11 points, whereas 15 points were scored by Mahendra Hills. This helped them to increase their lead to 53-44 by the end of the third quarter.
In the last quarter, Sam and Sudheer tried hard to turnaround SBI’s fortunes, but Daniel and Tanay chipped in with baskets at regular intervals to maintain the lead and win the match 72-57.
In the other game, St Francis and BITS had mixed fortunes in the first quarter with St Francis scoring 13 points against the eight scored by BITS.
In the second quarter, BITS scored 13 points and St Francis Boys scored 8 points. Sumith and Shoaib combined well with Peter for St Francis Boys whereas Sharan and Saket did the honours for BITS. St Francis Boys led 21-20 at half-time.
After the break, St Francis found their bearings and added 19 points to their tally in the third quarter through Nitish and Peter. On the other hand, BITS could muster only nine points and St Francis led 40-31.
In the last quarter, BITS Hyderabad played a fast-paced game and tried hard for a comeback, but St Francis Boys chipped in with baskets at regular interval to keep BITS at bay and win the match 55- 43.
Results: Mahendra Hills BC 72 (Daniel 22; Tagore 11; Rishi 8) beat SBI (Hyderabad) 57 (Samuel 29; Sudheer 15; Sukumar 8) Half-time: 38-33.
St Francis Boys 55 (Peter 25; Nitish 11; Sumith 7, Shoaib 4) beat BITS (Hyderabad) 43 (Sharan 17; Saket 13; Uppuluri 4; Guntuka 4) Half-time: 21-20.
