Date:07/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/05/07/stories/2005050705221800.htm

Sport - Basketball

Hard-fought win for Indian Army

Correspondent

NAGERCOIL: Indian Army, Delhi registered a hard-fought 58-55 victory over Signals, Delhi in the semi-final league of the IOC-Rajiv Gandhi Trophy all-India invitation basketball tournament here on Friday.

In the women's five-team league, KSEB, Thiruvananthapuram shocked Federation Cup Champion, Southern Railway, Chennai 45-35.

Indian Army-Signals match was interesting as both the military outfits were fighting hard right from the start.

Army had a one-point (17-16) lead at the end of the first quarter and a three-point (25-22) lead at the end of the second quarter. But in the third, Signals accelerated its scoring through Jayaram Jit and Vaidyanathan for a comfortable 5-point (42-37) lead.

However, Army came back strongly in the fourth quarter with Phool Singh and Sathish Kumar basketing fluently and clinched the issue at 58-55.

The results:

Indian Army, Delhi 58 (Phool Singh 13, Sathish Kumar 12) bt Signals, Delhi 55 (Jairam Jit 12, Vaidyanathan 10).

Women's league: KSEB, Thiruvananthapuram 45 (Sonia Joseph 14, Lejitha 12, Ambili Thomas 12) bt Southern Railway, Chennai 35 (Shamala S. Jothi 15).

Central Railway, Mumbai 47 (Indu 15, Sini Shaiju 10, Rigi Sunny 10) bt South Central Railway, Hyderabad 36 (Jetty Jose 15).

Western Railway 55 (I.V. Cherian 24, Shija Mathew 10) bt KSEB (Ambili Thomas 17, Lejitha 15).