IOB takes top honours

CHENNAI, AUG. 5 Despite some tactical blunders, Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai, managed to hang on to its first half lead and crushed the hopes of Indian Bank regaining the title by winning 66-42 in the final of the Ace Basketball Club-IOB all-India tournament here on Sunday.

Last year, Indian Bank won the battle for the trophy in a similar showdown but that was a State-level tournament. This time both these Bank outfits reached the final, eliminating some of the leading teams in the country. And once again the holiday crowd, bearing the loud noise from the nearby peace conference cultural programme, watched the battle of the arch rivals, who always fight like tigers trying to assert their territorial rights.

When these two teams clash, the result goes in favour of the team that commits less errors. It was a neck and neck race in the first quarter and it ended it with a 12-13 tally, Indian Bank trailing. In this period, Jayashankar was shooting superbly from outside and IOB had to use its pivots, Robinson and Shabeer Ahmed, to come back.

However, Indian Bank managed to keep Sivashankar in check Ball handler Gopinath's absence was felt. But the IOB coach made Sivashankar sit on the bench during the second quarter.

That was a bad gamble. But Indian Bank's ball handler Sunny made a bigger blunder by taking long shots without back-up for rebound collection. That was the break that IOB was waiting for and the team resorted to fast break. At half-time IOB took a commanding 36-19 lead.

It was this lead that helped the team to weather the fight-back of Indian Bank in the third and fourth quarters. When Sivashankar was reintroduced, IOB's shooting picked up again while Moses Jeevanand's inability to shoot in the beginning made Indian Bank struggle. In fact, he made very few attempts, unable to get away from the marking.

Barring the first quarter, IOB did not come under pressure. But Indian Bank had conceded a 17-point lead and then tried to bridge the gap. Sunny did not utilise Jayashankar more to keep the score moving. When Indian Bank came under pressure, it's defence cracked.

Sridhar was moving in for lay-ups. Indian Bank, unable to cope with the pressure, committed fouls. There were more free throws. It was this early mess that led to the downfall of Indian Bank.

South Central Railway, Secunderbad, finished third, beating Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, 89-74. Ravikumar of SC Railway won the Most Valuable Player award for his consistent shooting.

Former Davis Cup player Ramanathan Krishnan gave away the prizes.

The results:

Final: IOB 66 (Shabeer Ahmed 13, Sivashankar 10, Robinson 21, Sridhar 18) bt Indian Bank 42 (Moses Jeevanand 10, Jayashankar 21)

Third place: SC Railway, Secunderabad, 89 (Ishlauddin 24, Prasad 10, Ravikumar 16, Vishal Kumar 17) bt ICF 74 (Mohan Vamsi 10, Senthil Selvam 11, Shaul Hameed 15, Arul 10).

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