Hyderabad:Mamata Medical College and Golden Phoenixes scored hard fought wins to get promoted to Level-I in the GM Sampath Kumar Annual League Basketball Championship being held at Don Bosco High School.
Mamata Medical College defeated Rising Stars (Secunderabad) 66-63 while Golden Phoenixes beat YMCA Hyderabad 75-71.
In the first match, Rising Stars displayed better teamwork but Mamata Medical College’s Srikanth played brilliantly to take the first quarter 10-9. In a high scoring second quarter, Yeshwant and Nipun scored three 3-pointers as Stars scored 17 points. However Akash and Abhiram joined the scoring spree of Phoenixes amassing a massive 23 points to take a 33-26 lead at half-time.
After change of ends the Stars tightened their defence to restrict MMC to just 14 points and in turn scored 19 points to bridge the gap to just 2 points as MMC led 47-45 after the third quarter.
In the fiercely fought last quarter Nipun tanked two 3-pointers, Srinivas while Yeshwanth and Yagnesh chipped in with a brace of drive-in shots to score 18 points. However, it was not enough as they were just not able to stop Srikanth, who scored 10 points in the last quarter alone and was aided by two 3-pointers from Akash.
The other match had wide swings of lead for both Phoenixes and YMCA Hyderabad. Khadeer scored two 3-pointers and with David combining well with Anurag to score a massive 21 points.
Krish and Vishwa played in tandem to bring some semblance by scoring 11 points with Phoenixes taking the first quarter 21-11. In the second quarter YMCA tightened their defence to restrict their rivals to just 14 points, forcing turnovers and scoring 27 points to take a 38-35 lead at half-time.
After the lemon break Ajay scored a 3-pointer to level the scores at 40-40, thereafter the match went neck-to-neck. With just one minute left for the third quarter Sam scored two consecutive shots through drive-ins and Ajay closed the quarter with a 3-pointer to take a handy 59-54 lead.
In the last quarter it was cat and mouse chase as Aadvik and Krish were chipping in with baskets for YMCA but Phoenixes replied with Sam and Kanthu to finally win the match 75-71.
Brief Scores
Golden Phoenixes 75 (Sam 21, David 19, Kanthu 14, Khadeer 11, Ajay 6) bt YMCA Hyderabad 71 (Krish 27, Aadvik 21, Dheeraj 7, Vishwa 7) Half-time: 35-38.
Mamata Medical College 66 (Srikanth 19, Abhiram 16, Aakash 15, Dheeraj 9) bt Rising Stars (Secunderabad) 61 (Nipun 16, Srinivas 14, Yeshwanth 14, Yagnesh 10)
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: deccanchronicle.com
