Titans brushed aside the challenge of KVBR 48-21 to storm into the semifinals of the BM John Vinayasager Basketball Tournament at the YMCA Secunderabad on Thursday.
In another quarterfinal, hosts YMCA Secunderabad survived a scare in the first quarter before recovering their wits in time to score a hard-fought 66-47 win over St Francis Boys. YMCA Secunderabad, who were leading 31-26 at half-time, will take on Nizam Basketball Academy, who trounced Freestyle Ballers 73-53, in the semifinals.
Host YMCA Secunderabad began with a shaky start as they missed too many baskets at the beginning. However, Nathan and Rakesh brought some semblance of sanity as they scored 11 points. St Francis Boys capitalised on the lapses with Shoaib and Ajaz combining well to score 12 points as they took the honours in the first quarter 12-11.
In the 2nd quarter YMCA Secunderabad tightened their defense to restrict St Francis Boys to just 14 points while they scored 20 points with Nathan doing the bulk of the damage. YMCA regained their lead and were ahead 31-26 at half time.
After change of ends both the teams matched basket to basket. St Francis Boys scoring 19 points, however Nathan tanked two 3-pointers to score 23 points as YMCA Secunderabad led 54-45.
In the last quarter, YMCA Secunderabad further tightened their defense to restrict St Francis Boys to just 2 points and scored 12 points to finally win the match 66-47.
The tournament is being conducted by YMCA Secunderabad Alumni at YMCA Secunderabad in honour of B M John Vinayasager, former International with a decorative career in basketball.
Results (quarterfinals): Titans 48 (Vignesh 10, Kushal 10 Nandit 6) beat KVBR 31 (Amshul 12, Krishna 7). YMCA Secunderabad 66 (Nathan 25, Ashish 15, Rakesh 10) beat St Francis Boys 47 (Shoaib 13, Ajaz 12). Nizam Basketball Academy 73 (Charan 18, Balaji 13, Kaushik 13, Aravind 13, Majid 10) beat Freestyle Ballers 53 (Lakshay 18, Vishal 14, Sanjay 11).
