Sport - Basketball

Merchants teams have a field day

BANGALORE: Merchants (Davangere) had a field day even as “big” names like Jayanagar SC (JSC) and Indiranagar Basketball Club (IBBC) were made to bite the dust in the State sub-junior (under-13) basketball championship for the Ramanashree Trophy at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium courts here on Saturday.

Merchants’ boys’ team overwhelmed Rangers (Mysore) in a low scoring match to make the pre-quarterfinal grade, while its girls’ team weathered a stiff first-half, with the teams tied 16-16 before felling Rajmahal 35-21 to also progress to the round of 16.

IBBC did not know what struck it as Mangalore BC’s Nihal Kumar and Kiran impressed with some fine shooting and ball control.

Nihal looked in good form and tallied 17 points though it was a poor third and fourth quarter showing by the IBBC lads that widened the final margin.

Jayanagar SC boys too failed miserably in the first and fourth quarters to cave in meekly against Bellary’s YCBC.

The Bellary side, which took a firm grip on the match in the first quarter itself, led 18-5 and 28-9 by the end of the first two quarters to take the sting out of JSC.

Though the Jayanagar side did level the third quarter scores at 12-12, a blitzkrieg in the fourth quarter from the Bellary side’s Wesley Joseph (24) and Kiran Kumar (13) put the match way beyond the JSC team.

The results: Boys: YCBC (Bellary) 67 (Wesley Joseph 24, Kiran Kumar 13) bt JSC 28 (Chetan 10); Rovers (Dharwad) 21 bt Durgans (Chitradurga) 14; Pinakini (Gouribiddanur) 44 bt VN SC 20; Merchants (Davangere) 24 (Sandesh 11) bt Rangers (Mysore) 14; Vijayanagar (Hospet) 32 (Punith 10) bt SS Chandargi 8; Nationals (Mysore) 40 (Jitender Singh 20) bt Bhagwan (Gulbarga) 19; Mangalore BC 48 (Nihal Kumar 17, Kiran 10) bt IBBC 25.

Girls: Merchants (Davangere) 35 (Sneha Paul 17) bt Raj Mahal 21.

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