YMCA Secunderabad tops Group “D” in Annual League Basketball Championship
Hyderabad: With a clean slate, YMCA Secunderabad topped Group “D” in the Annual League Basketball Championship of the Hyderabad District Basketball Association. Loyola Academy, who posted second win in three games, are tied with Eagles but the former need to wait for the outcome of the match between G 9 and Sanathnagar Playground to decide […]
Hyderabad: With a clean slate, YMCA Secunderabad topped Group “D” in the Annual League Basketball Championship of the Hyderabad District Basketball Association.
Loyola Academy, who posted second win in three games, are tied with Eagles but the former need to wait for the outcome of the match between G 9 and Sanathnagar Playground to decide who qualifies from Group “C” while VPG with their second win are favoured to top Group “F” with a triple tie likely to emerge between Airborne, HMT and Trinity Basketball Association for the second qualifier from this group.
Young Men’s Guild won their first game in group “E” defeating Secunderabad Club who finished their league without a win in 3 games. YMG play Saints in their final league match to decide whether they stand a chance to qualify from the group as Saints and Keystone Basketball Academy have 2 wins.
The duo of Gali Samuel and Sriharsha continuing their prolific scoring ensured YMCA Secunderabad to ward off a 4th quarter rally by NBA to win 65-62, with NBA scoring 25 against 14 by YMCA after they trailed 37-51 at the end of the third quarter which was however just not sufficient to go through. Majid and Balaji were all over the YMCA defence in the fourth but the resilience of the winners saw them score a close win and emerge group winners.
With a must win situation to stay in contention of qualifying, Loyola Academy were simply superb with Nathan Abraham and Rahul along with Sudarshan doing good in defence and also scoring at possible openings even though the experienced Aman Mahmood, Gopi and lanky Loka Rohit did a good job for Eagles. Loyola prevailed 78-70 after leading 32-28 at the half way stage.
Aided by a high quality of play both in offence and defence, Victory Playground scored a convincing 60-36 victory over HMT, who succumbed to their second straight loss after a poor first half where they trailed 13-32. Diminutive Naveen and Balu impressed for the VPG side with Ajay and Anurag providing some sting in the HMT attack.
In group C which could decide the qualifiers only at the least league match, Loyola Academy after losing to G 9 in their opening game scored back-to-back wins at the expense of unbeaten Eagles team at 78-70, both finishing their engagements with two wins and a loss. However, they wait for the final group match between G 9 and Sanathnagar Playground which will throw open the qualifiers.
In Group E, Young Men’s Guild nudged out Secunderabad Club 45-43 after trailing 14-16 in a low scoring first half, with the loser going out of contention losing all their 3 games. YMG play Saints who have won both their matches and a win will create a triple tie along with Keystone Basketball Academy.
Results: Group C: Loyola Academy 78 (Nathan Abraham 27 Rahul 24) bt Eagles 70 (Aman Mahmood 18 Loka Rohit 17); Group D: Secunderabad YMCA 65 (Gali Samuel 25 Sriharsha 17) bt NBA 62 (Balaji 29 Majid 21); Group E: Young Men’s Guild Secunderabad 45 (Harsha 16 Nandit 7) bt Secunderabad Club 43 (Kaushik 19 Shreeduth 15); Group F: VPG 63(Naveen 10 Balu 11) bt HMT 36(Ajay 10 Anurag 7) HT 32-13
PiC 1: NATHAN OF LOYOLA ACADEMY SCORING FROM A LAY UP SHOT
PIC 2: NATHAN OF LOYOLA ACADEMY EECUTING A PERFECT ONE HANDED JUMP SHOT AGAINST EAGLES