Date:22/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/22/stories/2008032252992000.htm

Sport - Basketball

Vijaya Bank makes a winning start

BANGALORE: Vijaya Bank, former champion many times over, began its campaign in the A Division state basketball league for the Prof. N.C. Parappa memorial trophy with a comfortable 93-36 win over Sports Hostel, Bangalore.

At the Sree Kanteerava stadium courts here on Good Friday, the hostellers posed a challenge only in the first quarter when the scores read 26-17 in bankmen’s favour. Thereafter, it was one-way traffic as the depleted bankmen emerged the runaway winners.

Dev Kumar and Srinivas Naik, after a slow start, went full throttle and with the induction of towering Srinivas Gowda and Sanjay Raj into play, there was little that the hostellers could do. Against the taller defence, Sports Hostel resorted to long shots but, despite early success, could not pull it off regularly.

In the day’s other match, Jayanagar SC, with international Kaushal in full flow, recorded a fluent 71-58 win over BEML (Mysore).

While the day’s first match between MEG the defending champion and Beagles was postponed due to MEG’s other commitments, the two later matches was put off due to rains.

The results: Vijaya Bank 93 (Dev Kumar 29, Srinivasa Gowda 14) bt Sports Hostel 36 (M.R. Varun 11); JSC 71 (Kaushal 37) bt BEML (Mysore) 58 (Ravichandran 17, Sanhay 15, Ramakanth 14).