Date:04/03/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/03/04/stories/2007030411021600.htm

Sport - Basketball

MEG holds off BSNL, enters final

Special Correspondent

KOTTAYAM: MEG, Bangalore, held back a late rally by BSNL, Thiruvananthapuram, to win 70-69 and move into the men's final of the 13th YMCA all-India basketball tournament at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday.

The match turned exciting midway through the third quarter when BSNL chose to go all out in the attack, after having played second fiddle until then. What saw MEG through was its never-say-die-spirit.

The scores were quite close on several occasions as BSNL, thanks to the good work delivered by P.S. Arun, M. Anoop and Shinumon Augustine, gave MEG a tough time.

Francis ejected

The loss of Sweeto Francis, who was instrumental in MEG's upsurge during the first two quarters, with five fouls when five minutes was left seemed to hurt the side, the score-board reading 65-60 at that stage.

Santosh Kumar, who replaced Francis, rose to the occasion with a deft all-round display as he aided Peter John and Tinu Joseph to thwart BSNL's designs.

In the final analysis, what also helped MEG was the failure of BSNL players to convert free-throws at crucial junctures. Also critical to the final outcome was the sluggish manner in which BSNL muffed at least three chances to score in the last minute and its failure to hold the same number of ball positions.

Earlier, Central Railway, Mumbai, which had tasted defeat at the hands of Southern Railway, Chennai 66-59 late on Friday night, regrouped to trounce South Western Railway, Hubli, 56-26 and qualify for the women's play-off final.

On Sunday, the Mumbai side will again meet Southern Railway, which with a match against KSEB on hand, has already made the grade with two wins from as many matches.

The results:

Men: Semifinals: MEG 70 (Sweeto Francis 20, Tinu Joseph 15, Peter John 14) bt BSNL 69 (P.S. Arun 18, M. Anoop 14, Shinumon Augustine 14).

Quarterfinals: BSNL 63 (Shinumon Augustine 26, Bobit Mathew 15) bt Vijaya Bank 48 (Muralli Mohan14, Rony Zacharia 12).

Women: Round-robin league: Central Railway 56 (M. Beena 14) bt South Western Railway 26 (L. Kruthika14); Southern Railway 66 (Geethu Anna Jose 17, N. Shymala 16, I.P. Nithya 13, M. Adhirai 12, G. Deepa 10) bt Central Railway 59 (S. Indu 28, Geo Blessen 11).