Date:16/04/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/04/16/stories/2005041601922000.htm

Sport - Basketball

Merchants, Greens post impressive wins

Sports Reporter

BANGALORE: Davangere teams — Merchants Sports Club and Greens — may have a few overaged players. Nevertheless the quality of play they displayed in the semifinal league of the State sub-junior basketball championship was indeed off a high order.

If the showing in the knock-out phase was impressive, the teams have managed to continue in the same vein in the two semi final league matches played on this day at the Sree Kanteerava stadium posting one-sided victories, and in the process both the teams accounted for last year's champion Vivekananda (Mandya).

While Merchants outplayed the Mandya side in the evening winning 54-24 the Greens trounced them in the morning 38-24. Indiranagar Basket Ball Club (IBBC) was the other team in the four team league to suffer crushing defeats.

In the girls' section, Shetty's Mangalore trailing 14-22 at halfway stage turned tables against a strong Vivek's 36-34 in a thrilling contest. The match looked going either way till the last seconds before the Mangalore side pulled it off, albeit by a basket, with V.A. Shruti playing out the final moments shrewdly.

Mounts Club weathered a late revival from Indiranagar Basket Ball Club (IBBC) to post a 36-26 win and advance into the semi-final league. Ramya Vasisth's late spree for IBBC could not help her team but narrow the final defecit. Iravati Guha and Kavya Raman stole the honours for Mounts.Viveks, Shetty's (Mangalore) and Jayanagar SC also made it to the last four league in the girls section.

The results: (semifinal league):

Boys: Merchants (Davangere) 50 (Naveen 10) bt IBBC 22 (Anmol 10)(Ht: 33-10); Greens (Davangere) 38 (Ranganath 14) bt Vivekananda (Mandya) 24 (Ht: 27-9); Merchants (Dvg) 54 (Shashank 10) bt Vivekananda 24 (Ht: 36-4); Greens (Dvg) 41 bt IBBC 19 (Ht: 19-10).

Girls: Shetty's (Mangalore) 36 (Ashika 12) bt Vivek's 34 (Sindhu 12)(Ht: 14-22); Mounts Club 28 (Iravathi Guha 10) bt Jayanagar SC 16 (Ht: 16-8); Shetty's 34 bt Jayanagar SC 32 (Siri 11)(Ht: 18-14); Vivek's 34 bt Mounts Club 21 (Ht: 17-11).