Hindustan Aeronautical Limited's (HAL) run in the State Association Cup came to an abrupt halt when they suffered a 51-60 defeat at the hands of Army Service Corps (ASC) in the men's quarterfinals at the Sree Kanteerava stadium outdoor courts here on Sunday.
The Aeronauticsmen, who entered the last four in the previous season, couldn't make it this time around as they erred repeatedly. They sorely missed Sanjay Raj and Yasin on the day. While Raj moved to Vijaya Bank, the latter joined BSNL this year.
But then, HAL played at their best only in patches on the day. They were helped to a large extent as ASC weren't at the fluent best initially. But the Army team found its touch from the second quarter onwards.
In the error-prone first period, despite starting slowly, ASC had taken a four-point lead (17-13). Umashankar and Sachindra, who missed one too many baskets, didn't help Aeronautics' cause either in the second quarter.
However, ASC made the most of HAL's largesse to take a handy 38-29 lead at half-time.
After the break, ASC stepped up the tempo as Nixon, who scored a match-high 19 points, and Dharampal (14) effectively shut the doors on the Aeronauticsmen. Raj Kumar (15) and Umashankar (11) were the main scorers for HAL.
In the semifinals, ASC will meet Vijaya Bank and MEG will take on KSP.
Meanwhile, IBBC, SWR, Beagles and Mounts Club entered the semifinals in the women’s section.
Results(all-quarterfinals):
Men: ASC: 60 (Nixon 19, Dharampal 14) bt HAL: 51 (Raj Kumar 15, Uma Shankar 11). HT: 38-29; KSP: 80 (Sree Raksha 21, Santosh 19) bt Sports Hostel: 55 (Varun A R 22, Varun M R 12). HT: 56-37; Vijaya Bank: 60 (Srinivas Gowda 15, Murali Mohan 11) bt JSC: 29 (Siddarth 11). HT: 35-18; MEG: 78 (Manoj 26, Subbaiah 19, Lloyd 10) bt Ambedkar: 44 (Shreyas 10, Adeel 9). HT: 34-17.
Women: IBBC: 31 (Chitra 13) bt KS Hegde, Mangalore: 18 (Deepa 7). HT: 16-12; South Western Railway: 56 (Reshma 11, Smitha 8) bt Sports Hostel, Mysore: 40 (Sneha 20). HT: 27-21; Beagles: 30 (Sandhya 9, Sophia 8) bt JSC: 15 (Sushma 6). HT: 19-8; Viveknagar SC: 55 (Reeth 28) bt Mounts Club: 52 (Shikha S 24). HT: 22-20.
