Bengaluru, 20th October 2016: The Vijaya Bank organised 3rd Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty All India Basketball Tournament for Men 2016entered Day 2 at Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in the city. The tournament is being conducted under the aegis of the Basketball Federation of India and the Karnataka State Basketball Association.
Hosts Vijaya Bank are through to the semifinals, having won both their Group A league matches. From Group B, Customs and Central Excise, Kochi are sitting pretty with two straight wins with one league match remaining tomorrow.
Customs and Central Excise, Kochi bt Kerala State Electricity Board 86-60
In the first match of the day Kerala state rivals Central Excise took on Kerala State Electricity Board. The two teams are very familiar with each other’s playing styles, having competed numerous times at the senior state level within Kerala. The first quarter opened with the favoured Customs team opening up a huge 20-4 lead. KSEB was guilty of turning the ball over too many times.
KSEB though began to show life late in the first quarter, before dominating 20-11 in the second period. The game was tied at 31, with Customs’ point guard Nikhil not helping matters by jacking up long three pointer attempts. At halftime, Customs led 34-33.
As it turned out, the effort of keeping the game close was too much for KSEB to maintain in the second half. Customs had a very easy 34-16 third quarter which broke KSEB’s back. Customs next plays President’s 11, Karnataka in their final league match tomorrow. KSEB, which is already knocked out of the tournament, takes on Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu, Chennai.
Customs and Central Excise, Kochi (Manoj 18, Eudrick Pereira 16, Nikhil R 15) bt Kerala State Electricity Board (Arun Harikumar 22, Gokul G 12, Arun Babu 11) 86-60 [23-13, 11-20, 34-16, 18-11]
Vijaya Bank bt Indian Bank 99-82
In arguably the most awaited match of the day, the talented Indian Bank stepped onto the floor for the first time in this tournament, as they took on hosts Vijaya Bank. Indian Bank features two young and promising international stars- shooting guard Hariram Ragupathy, who made his debut on the senior Indian team recently, and point guard P Baladhaneshwar, the current captain of the Indian U18 team.
Indian Bank was impressive in the first 15 minutes, able to easily blow past the man to man defence employed by Vijaya Bank. At the end of the first quarter, Indian Bank led 26-24. That’s when Vijaya Bank’s own international centre Arvind Arumugam starting dominating at centre. Arvind had a match high 31 points, and he was ably complimented by guard Anil Kumar’s 24, as Vijaya Bank outscored Indian Bank 30-13 in the second quarter.
Indian Bank’s playmaker Baladhaneshwar impressed in the first half but had to sit out the second half due to an ankle injury that had him moving gingerly throughout the game. With Bala out of action, that pretty much meant the death knell for Indian Bank, as Vijaya Bank crusied to an ultimately easy 99-82 win.
Vijaya Bank (2-0) is now through to the semifinals, while Indian Bank will face Integral Coach Factory, Chennai to decide the second semifinal team from Group A.
Vijaya Bank (Arvind Arumugam 31, Anil Kumar 24) bt Indian Bank(Sandeep 20, M Puvaneshwaran 19, Hariram Ragupathy 16) 99-82 [24-26, 30-13, 20-20, 25-23]
Late evening result from Day 1 (19th Oct): President’s 11, Karnataka bt Kerala State Electricity Board 72-59
In an unexpected result, President’s 11 (i.e. Karnataka State team) beat Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) in the final match of Day 1. Coming into this match, KSEB were favourites since the squad comprised an experienced and set lineup that has regularly featured in national level tournaments over the last few years. However, the upstart Karnataka boys must have missed the memo.
Karnataka led 23-20 at the end of the first quarter before KSEB won the second and third periods by a single point each. Leading by 1 point going into the final 10 minutes, junior India point guard Guruprasad Nayak (who was part of the Indian U18 team that won the South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Qualifiers earlier this year) came into his own for Karnataka. The 18-year-old was able to get to the foul line repeatedly and knocked down majority of his freethrows to lead Karnataka to a decisive 20-8 scoring differential in the fourth quarter.
Tomorrow (i.e. 20th Oct 2016), President’s 11 will next take on SDAT, Chennai from 7:30 pm, while KSEB will battle fellow Kerala rivals Customs & Central Excise, Kochi (4:30 pm tip off).
President’s 11, Karnataka (Guruprasad Nayak 17, Mufeez Ahmed 11, Vijay 8) bt Kerala State Electricity Board (Tony K Mathew 15, Arun Babu 11) 72-59 [23-20, 11-12, 18-19, 20-8]
