Titans emerge champions in sixth Samuel Vasanth Kumar memorial basketball tournament

Titans clinch 82-76 win against Sanathnagar Playground in the final at the YMCA Secunderabad

Hyderabad: Titans emerged champions in the sixth Samuel Vasanth Kumar memorial basketball tournament, organised by Sports Writers Association of Telangana, with an 82-76 win against Sanathnagar Playground in the final at the YMCA Secunderabad here on Wednesday.

Table tennis international Nikhat Banu gave away the prizes. The winner got Rs 15,000, the runner-up Rs 10,000.

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Special prizes were given to B Ravinder (best coach), Rakesh of YMCA Secunderabad (most promising player) and Surya of Titans (most valuable player).

Titan’s Surya started with a three-pointer, Salman netted two three-pointers, and Nandit dominated the paint as Titans scored a massive 28 points. Sanathnagar’s Tejendra and Nikhil chipped in with timely baskets. Titans took the first quarter 28 – 17.

In the next period, Sanathnagar switched to man-to-man marking and, with tight defense restricted the Titans to just 8 points and, in turn, scored 20 points through Sai and Tejendra. Sai, with his accurate drive-ins, scored 10 consecutive points as Sanathnagar led 37 – 36 at halftime.

After the change of ends match was neck to neck as both teams matched basket to basket. With just 50 seconds left in the third quarter, Salman netted a three-pointer, and Vignesh scored off a steal to make it a 6-point game, 63 – 57.

In the last session, Sanathnagar tried very hard to bridge the gap through Sudershan and Tejendra. Titans increased the tempo of their game to score quick baskets through Vignesh, Surya and Nandit, scoring a massive 29 points to finally win the match 92 – 76.

The scores:

Final: Titans 92 (Salman 21, Nandit 21, Kunal 14, Surya 13) bt Sanathnagar PG 76 (Jasim 31, Tejendra 21).