Eagles soar into quarters
BHEL, CCOB too make the last eight round of Shujath Memorial basketball
Eagles Club Secunderabad carved a victory over NBA with a 73-62 verdict in prequarterfinal match of the Nawaz Shujath Ahmed Khan Memorial Basketball tournament played at City College courts.
It was a thrilling win for the Eagles as they came from behind in the last two quarters to emerge victors.
Both the teams started the proceedings with three point shots secured by Rohan and Balaji respectively. The teams played at a fast pace scoring through the fast breaks and drive-in shots matching each other in every segment. NBA gained a 7-point lead by the end of the first quarter as Samson pounded 10 points in succession with 2 three-pointers. The second quarter belonged to Eagles who scored 17 points against 13 points by NBA. Thus reducing the lead to 3 points by half-time the scoreline read 35-32 in favour of NBA, Eagles played a sensible game to maintain lead by 4 points by end of the third quarter.
In the final quarter the NBA trio of Samson, Vijay and Balaji could not succeed in their attempts. On the other hand, Eagles stretched their lead for the winning position through Aman, Rohan and Tribhuvan who scored 17 points out of which 21 points scored in the fourth quarter to win the match.
In another match, BHEL (42) outplayed Reddy Hostel (23). BHEL ran away with a 15-point lead by the end of first quarter (17-2). Lanky Rahul scored continuously with support from Srikanth. The hostel boys found their going difficult. Rahul (16) and Srikanth (12) played well for BHEL while Satwik scored 8 points for Reddy Hostel.
In another clash, CCOB (40) defeated TCL (38) in a closely contested match. The TCL players never allowed the hosts to relax, keeping them in hunt of the basket. At half time TCL were leading with 9 points (2213).
In the third quarter The CCOB boys tightened the defence and made some fine interceptions to apply brakes on TCL scoring. Sandeep and Rose Khan made good use of their height to score from the offence rebounds to scrape past the TCL score by winning with 2 points.
In other matches, Osmania Playground (52) defeated HAL club (50); Sharp Shooters (79) beat K. Chums Club (50) and RBC (54) beat Maharshi College (38).
THE RESULTS ■ Eagles Club 73 bt NBA 62. ■ BHEL 42 bt Reddy Hostel 23. ■ CCOB 40 bt TCL 38. ■ Osmania Playground 52 bt HAL 50.
■ Sharp Shooters 79 bt K. Chums Club 50.
■ RBC 54 bt Maharshi College 38.