Date:14/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/14/stories/2006051411301800.htm

Sport - Basketball

Hyderabad boys triumph

Special Correspondent

JAGTIAL: Hyderabad boys and Kurnool girls retained their titles in the AP inter-district junior basketball championship that concluded at the District Sports Authority mini stadium here on Saturday. Hyderabad boys subdued Karimnagar 59-41, while Kurnool outplayed Hyderabad girls in

the dying minutes to record a well-deserved 51-49 triumph.

Tactically, Hyderabad boys had the host tied up in knots. Junior India camper Arvind was boxed in well by Vinay Singh, but the former unleashed a trio of three-pointers nonetheless. Karimnagar skipper Mallaiah was coaxed into committing five fouls that forced his exit in the third quarter.

Arvind being the marked man, the rest of Hyderabad's defence went zonal. Lokesh proved quite a handful for Karimnagar as his marauding runs foxed the home defence time and again.

A cliffhanger

In the girls' final, Kurnool, after trailing three quarters of the way, clinched the cliffhanger in the concluding 10 minutes to underscore its supremacy yet again.

The super duo

Earlier, in the boys' semifinals, Hyderabad combined well with Varun Dev and Vinay Singh in the forefront, finding the basket frequently. Lokesh's ball-handling ensured that passes were fed to the duo in a steady stream. But for the first quarter, which ran close at 14-13, Anantapur couldn't withstand the onslaught of the capital side.

Meanwhile, Karimnagar posted 10-point leads in the subsequent quarters to register an authoritative 54-39 win over West Godavari.

The results:

Boys: Final: Hyderabad 59 (Vinay Singh 22, Varun Dev 12, Lokesh 10, Abhinay Swarup 9) bt Karimnagar 41 (Venkatesh 14, Arvind 9, Arun Teja 9). Semifinals: Karimnagar 54 (Mallaiah 19, Teja 17, Arvind 12) bt West Godavari 39 (I.V.B.P. Varma 16); Hyderabad 65 (Varun 27, Vinay 14, Lokesh 10) bt Anantapur 27 (K.M. Arshad 8). Quarterfinals: Anantapur 59 (Satish 18, Naresh 13, Manoj 12) bt Guntur 52 (Ch. Naveen Kumar 23, K.V. Bharath 12, Ch. Srinivas Rao 11); Karimnagar 80 (Arvind 18, Teja 14, Mallaiah 17) bt East Godavari 67 (Swamy 24, Venkatesh 14, Varahalu 10); Hyderabad 66 (Varun Dev 20, Vinay Singh 19) bt Vizag 51 (Ramesh 18).

Girls: Final: Kurnool 51 (B. Sandhya 17, Saritha 17, Padmavathi 11) bt Hyderabad 49 (Ameeta 15, Madhuri 10, Anjana 8, Sandhya 8). Semifinals: Hyderabad 41 (Anjana 14, Sandhya 10, Radhika 7) bt Chittoor 18 (P.J. Karthika 12); Kurnool 39 (Saritha 14) bt Anantapur 18. Quarterfinals: Hyderabad 21 (Swetha Sudha 8) bt Nizamabad 3.