The Hindu : ICF puts up a better show

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Aug 07, 2003

Sport

Sport - Basketball

ICF puts up a better show

By Our Special Correspondent

Chennai August 6. Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, put up a better show with neat shooting and passable defence against Tata Steel (TISCO), Jamshedpur, 65-48 on the third day of Ace Basketball Club's all-India tournament for the Magnolia Trophy at the Montfort indoor stadium, Santhome, here on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Hindustan BC messed up its game completely. It missed many free throws and played without proper coordination against Customs, Kochi. The latter won comfortably at 80-64.

All four teams have already qualified for the quarterfinals and these encounters were only to decide the group winners. ICF and Kochi Customs finished on top in Group B and A with two wins each.

Tata Steel's weak bench strength meant it had a big handicap against a team like ICF. It set up a good pace through ball handler Tony Leslie, who can cut through any defence in the country with excellent speed and ball control.

A former Loyola College student, he has been ICF's main force behind its enormous success in the inter-Railway competition. ICF as a whole is a lively side because it is made up of players mostly from Loyola.

After some early misses ICF's game picked up in the second quarter in which it scored 22 points to TISCO's 14. Balaji, Sikkandar and Tony kept up the pressure with quick attack and clean shooting. Tata fell behind and in the third quarter ICF surged further with a 20-12 lead with better rebounding and basketing.

Leading 53-32, ICF relaxed a bit in the fourth quarter. Man Singh, Prakash Rao and Wasim Khan managed to reduce the lead for TISCO. However, ICF hung on to the 10 point lead.

Kochi Customs, a well-balanced side, was too strong with two good pivots in Shenoy and Vivek and two outside shooters in Joe Antony and Sunny Thomas. Against such a squad Hindustan should have been more organised. But the city team's defence was too poor in the beginning and Customs exploited it fully by taking a 39-25 lead at half time.

Still Hindustan fought well through Sugavaneshwaran and Gokulakrishnan. But the local club committed too many fouls and wasted free throws. Customs also squandered some free throws and Shenoy missed two throws at a crucial stage when Hindustan reduced the lead to seven points from 14.

But the home side did not recover from its bad patch and again messed up so badly after the break that Customs stretched the lead to 14 points. Anto and Gokulakrishnan left the court with five fouls each and Hindustan's game plummeted further.

Vivek and Raja Tomy also committed five fouls each for Customs, but the visiting side maintained steady shooting and better rebounding to beat the city squad.

The results: ICF 65 (Balaji 19, Sikkandar 17, Tony Leslie 10) bt Tata Steel 48 (Man Singh 11, Prakash Rao 10, Wasim Khan 10).

Central Excise, Kochi, 80 (Vivek 10, Monish Wilson 11, Joe Antony 15, Raja Tomy 10, Sunny thomas 23, Shenoy 10) bt Hindustan BC 64 (Mohan Raj 10, Syrus 10, Gokulakrishnan 12, Sugavaneshwaran 16).

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