Sports Hostel, SAI emerge champs

Basketball: State Junior championship: Mysore, Dharwad teams call the shots

SAI overpowered an out-of-sorts Ambedkar Basketball Club 60-41 in the title-deciding semifinal league encounter. Dharwad outfit won the title with an all-win record in the last four matches where they also beat Rangers, Mysore and Kanaka, Kolar.

While Sports Hostel registered a comeback win over Beagles to record their third victory in as many matches in the semifinal league. Trailing by one point at half-time (20-21), Mysore girls, aided by Sushmitha (19) and Navaneetha (15), then took on the opponents in the last two quarters to settle the issue in their favour at 52-36.

In the SAI-Ambedkar match, Hostelers, who opened their scoring through a three-pointer from Rajesh U, worked their way to a healthy 42-24 lead at half-time.

Ambedkars were guilty of missing easy pickings while their star shooter Adeel Anees shone only in patches enabling their rivals to take a stranglehold of the match. Mayur and Devanna came up with some reflex saves under the basket for SAI and Rajesh (16) and Abhishek Y (13) converted the chances to baskets to help Hostelers clinch the match and title.

DH News Service

Results (semifinal league):

Boys: SAI, Dharwad: 60 (U Rajesh 16, Abhishek Y 13) bt Ambedkar BC: 41 (Adeel 15, Arvind 8). HT: 42-24.

Rangers, Mysore: 56 (Subash 22, Shravan 21) bt Kanaka, Kolar: 42 (Giri 12). HT: 27-19.
Girls: Sports Hostel, Mysore: 52 (Navaneetha 15, Sushmitha 19) bt Beagles: 36 (Sneha 10, Sandhya 8). HT: 21-20. Mounts Club: 57 (Roshini 18, Sagarika 18) bt JSC: 36 (Upasana 13). HT: 29-18.

Placings: Boys: SAI, 1; Ambedkar, 2; Rangers, 3; Kanaka, 4. Girls: Sports Hostel, 1; Mounts Club, 2; Beagles, 3; JSC, 4.