Date:14/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/14/stories/2006081410142000.htm

Sport - Basketball

IOB lifts trophy

CHENNAI: IOB defeated ONGC 93-71 in the final of the Ace BC L &T Magnolia Trophy all-India basketball tournament at Montford Indoor Stadium, Santhome, here on Sunday.

From the moment Robinson opened the account with a two-pointer, IOB made its intentions clear.

Robinson was impressive in the defence also. He emerged the joint-top scorer (23 points) with his teammate Mihir Pandey.

John Platto played a crucial part in the second quarter to put an end to some brilliant moves by ONGC forwards.

At halftime, the scores read 48-36, and by the end of the third quarter, IOB raced to a seemingly invincible 75-45 lead with half-a-dozen two-pointers from Sukavaneshwar.

Sridhar and Desraj helped ONGC keep pace with IOB till half-time.

Western Railway finished third and as a consolation its player Trideep Rai received the Most Valuable Player of the tournament award.

K. Jayaramakrishnan, Vice-President, Head India Geography, TCS LTd., gave away the prizes.

The results: Final: IOB 93 (Mihir Pandey 23, Robinson 23, Sukavaneshwar 22, Suresh 11) bt ONGC 71 (Desraj 15, Sridhar 22, Suresh Kumar 12); Third place: W. Rly 67 (Trideep Rai 32, Prakash Mishra 13, Ethiraj 10, Rahul Dev Tyagi 10) bt Karnataka 62 (Kaushal Ravikumar 15, Rony Zachariah 15). — Sports Reporter