South Central Railway pound Mamata Medical College 71-37 in GM Sampath basketball

Mamata Medical College, who graduated from Level II to Level I, found that the game was altogether different as they were thrashed by title contenders South Central Railway (SCR) 71-37 in the GM Sampath Kumar Annual League Basketball Championship at the YMCA Secunderabad on Friday evening.

South Central Railway proved quite a handful for Mamata Medical College as the Railway hoopsters put up a near flawless display in the first game of Level I. They excelled in both aspects of the game – offensive and defensive – to catch their rivals off-guard.

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South Central Railway led 41-15 at half-time and that goes to show the kind of dominance they had on the court.

South Central Railway started with very tight defense not allowing any easy baskets to Mamata Medical College hoopsters. Only five points were scored by the medicos, while the Railway men posted 21 on the board aided with three 3-pointers through Goutham and Kaushik to take the first quarter 21-5.

With the Railway men displaying their accurate shooting skills, they scored another four 3-pointers through Dheeraj and Manoj. They added 20 more points to their tally. On the other hand, Srikanth was waging a lone battle as he scored a hat-trick of shots to bring some semblance to the score with 10 points. South Central Railway led 41-15 at half-time.

After change of end, SCR hoopsters continued with the same strategy and added another 17 points to their tally. Mamata Medical College could muster just eight points through Dheeraj as South Central Railway led 58-23 by the end of the third quarter.

In the last quarter, SCR gave their regular players a breather and tested their bench strength. This helped Mamata Medical College to score 15 points through Srikanth and Alex. But SCR added 13 points mainly through 3-pointers from Dheeraj to seal the issue.

In all 13 3-points (39 points) were scored by SCR beyond the arc with Dheeraj alone accounting for eight of the 13.

Result: South Central Railway 71 (Dheeraj 20; Goutham 8; Gideon 8; Kaushik 4) beat Mamata Medical College 37 (Srikanth 12; Dheeraj 9) Half-time: 41-15.