Date:28/11/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/11/28/stories/2003112807152000.htm

Sport - Basketball

Bangalore stuns Annamalai

CHENNAI NOV. 27. Bangalore brought off a sensational victory over last year's all-India champion Annamalai University, Chidambaram 72-60 and moved into the four-team summit league of the South Zone inter-University men's basketball championship at the Loyola College campus here on Thursday.

Three players were mainly responsible for Bangalore's brilliant show. Sanat Ram led the assault and Aditya and Shiramkumar lent him good support. These three helped Bangalore take a commanding 11-2 lead. But Annamalai's lanky Roshan converted from pivot shot and Palanivel Rajan excelled in jump shots.

The Chidambaram team levelled the score at 18. In the third quarter, Annamalai's erratic game helped Adityan and Sanat Ram to go for lay-ups and re-bounce. Bangalore surged to a 57-33 lead. Despite Annamalai's pressing defence, Bangalore managed to hang on to the lead and win.

Bharatiyar, Coimbatore fought a pitched battle against Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, before emerging 84-70 in an exciting match. V. Shankar, with 34 points, and S. Aravind (16 points) demolished M.G University's defence in the fourth quarter. They stole the passes well and excelled in jump shots.

Bharatiyar had a slender lead at the end of the third quarter (59-54) V. Shankar stole the ball thrice and also helped his team widen the lead with 13 points in the third quarter.

Calicut got off to a flying start with a 23-2 lead and then played a leisurely game before winning at 57-36.

Madras went on a scoring spree and thrashed Kannur with a massive 61-point difference.

In the summit league tomorrow, Bharatiyar meets Bangalore and Madras takes on Calicut. These four teams have qualified for the All India championships.

The results: Quarterfinals: Bangalore 72 (Sanat Ram 21, Aditya 15, Sriramkumar 12) bt Annamalai 60 (Santanakrishnan 14, Roshan 10); Bharatiyar 84 (V. Shankar 34, S. Aravind 16) bt M.G. University, Kottayam 70 (Vibin 24, Smithin 14, K.N. Rajesh 11); Calicut 57 (Rony 23, C.V. Ratheesh 12) bt Anna University 36 (Kiran Nair 10, Sri Prakash 10); Madras 92 (Amarnath Gopi 20, Saravanarajan 12, Navaneethan 12) bt Kannur 31 (M. Hari 14).

Pre-quarterfinals: Bharatiyar 75 (Shyam 19, Vijayakumar 14) bt Madurai Kamaraj 53 (Charles 14, Ganesh Prabhu 13). Bangalore 48 (Sriramkumar 15, Harish 11) bt Kerala 45 (Arun 10, Nithin 10, Vineeth 10); Anna University 86 (Premkumar 19, Selva Bharath 12, Dennis 12) bt Bharatidasan, Tiruchi 64 (Fazil 14, R. Karthik 18). Kannur 50 (Hari 18, Nicholas 12) bt Mysore 37 (H.M. Ramesh 13).