Date:16/02/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/02/16/stories/2006021608862000.htm

Sport - Basketball

SRM Deemed University triumphs

Special Correspondent

Chennai: SRM Deemed University won the all-India inter-zone inter-university men's basketball tournament for the Bangalore Blues Challenge Cup defeating 64-53 the defending champion Madras in the final at the SRM campus here on Wednesday. It was SRM's maiden title.

Madras suffered because its outside shooting was not good and defence was also not up to the mark.

The towering Janakiram Reddy and Prem Sharma of SRM posed a big threat to the Madras defence. Reddy posed a bigger challenge to Karthik and Vignesh Kumar. They found the tall Reddy too strong to stop. Madras's fouls mounted and SRM surged ahead with a steady flow of shots.

The host surged to a 17-13 lead in the first quarter and 31-23 at half time. In the first half Madras managed to keep pace with the rival shooting. But in the second session the home team pushed the lead with a 52-40 advantage at the third quarter.

SRM's gameplan was simple as it used both the pivots for close attack. And Reddy hardly missed anything. When Madras's outside shooting did not take off in the beginning the players came under tremendous pressure and tried to move in for shots. But when they missed SRM mopped up the rebounds. Vignesh and Karhick did not shoot well. Kannan too was not going for baskets. Under pressure Madras fumbled.

After taking a 60-42 lead SRM did relax a bit and a series of shots by Madras reduced the lead to 53-60.

But Deepak Venkatesh and Sivanesan took the game away from Madras, the former converting three throws and the later a jump shot.

Punjab finished third beating Panjabi 71-46.

Prof. S.P. Thyagarajan, vice-chancellor, Madras University, gave away the prizes.

The results (final): SRM University 64 (Janakiram Reddy 23, Prem Sharma 21) bt Madras 53 (Vignesh Kumar 11, Karthik 11).

Third place: Punjab 71 (Gurpal Singh 16, Gagandeep 12) bt Panjabi 46 (Gurbaj Singh 10).

Semifinals: SRM 59 (Janakiram Reddy 21) bt Punjab 47 (Fatheep Singh 21); Madras 58 (Kannan 20) bt Panjabi 50 (Gurbaj Singh 20).