Basketball
St Francis College, Keystone Basketball Academy emerge champs
Pari does the trick for St Francis
Befitting a final, St Francis College won a thrilling 57–55 win in overtime after both teams were locked 48–48 at regulation time. St Francis were trailing 21–25 at half time.
The game began on an even note as both teams traded baskets and scored 11 points apiece at end of the 1st quarter. Samhita was shooting from outside while Hiba was controlling the paint area for St Francis. On the other hand, Amita and Jahnavi chipped in with baskets at regular intervals for Nizam Basketball Academy. In the 2nd quarter Lasya and Khushboo of Nizam combined well to score 14 points. However, Samhita and Pari scored through drive-in to reduce the deficit, but Nizam led 25–21 at half-time.
After-change of ends, St Francis switched to tight man to man marking which broke the rhythm of the Nizam hoopsters, who in turn playing a fast-paced game scored through Pari and Rekha within 2 minutes to level the scores and also led 29–25 at a time. However, St Francis managed to lead 39–36 at end of 3rd quarter.
In the 4th quarter, Nizam recovered and aided with Amita’s two 3-pointer and with Shruthi using her height to good affect scoring from the paint, they levelled the scores, and the match went neck to neck. With just 19 seconds left for the match with Nizam leading 48–46, Pari of St Francis scored through a drive-in to level the scores 48–48 and lead the match to Over-Time.
In the Over-Time, St Fracis tightened their defense, and Nizam had to rely on 3-Point shooting, though Amita scored two 3-Pointers it was not enough as Pari was just unstoppable as she scored 5 points to win the match for St Francis.
Keystone win see-saw battle
In a see-saw battle till the last six minutes of the match Keystone Basketball Academy scored a hard fought 75–66 win over Titans after leading 44-36 at half time.
In a fast-paced encounter both the teams matched basket to basket, with Titans using short quick passes to outsmart the tall and lanky Keystone BA players to score in the paint and Chris scoring outside the arc.
Titans quickly ran to a 12–3 lead. However, Keystone recovered with Preetham and Saharsh scoring four 3-pointers between them as Keystone led 22-20 at the end of the 1st quarter.
In the 2nd quarter Subhash of Keystone went berserk as he was just unstoppable scoring as many as 10 points with support from Pratheek scoring 22 points and with tight defense restricting Titans to just 16 points as Keystone BA led 44–36 at half-time.
After the lemon break, Titans tightened their defense and restricted Keystone to just five points and in turn scored heavily through Salman, Surya and Kunal accounting for 18 points. Titans were comfortably placed 54–49 at the end of the 3rd quarter.
In the last quarter, Keystone played a fast-paced game and with six minutes left for the match Titans led 57–56 thereafter Preetham and Saharsh scored four 3-pointers taking an 8-point lead 69-61 and later chipped in with baskets at regular intervals through Krishay and Subhash to finally win the match 75–66.
Narayanan Sri Ganesh, MLA, Cantonment was the chief guest while Adam Raj Dekapaty, general secretary, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee & National Chairman, Indo-Israel Friendship Association was the guest of honour. K V Prasad, senior Congress leader gave away the trophy and cash awards in the presence of Md Rizwan, former Indian basketball team captain, Norman Isaac, general secretary, Hyderabad District Basketball Association. Priestly Gius, vice-president, Hyderabad District Basketball Association, and Eugene George, treasurer, Hyderabad District Basketball Association.
Results (finals): MEN: Keystone Basketball Academy 75 (Saharsh 21, Subhash 17, Preetham 10, Krishya 8, Aryan 8, Pratheek 5, Karthik 4) bt Titans 66 (Salman 16, Nandit 12, Surya 11, Chris 11, Vicky 10).
WOMEN: St Francis 57 (Pari 17, Samhita 14, Saniya 11, Hiba 6, Rekha 5) bt Nizam Basketball Academy 55 (Amita 16, Jahnavi 14, Shruti 10, Lasya 9, Khushboo 6).