UBA Pro Basketball: Chennai Slam remain undefeated, beat Punjab Steelers 80-57

Chennai Slam are yet to face a stiff challenge in the ongoing UBA Professional Basketball League. On the fourth day at the Balewadi sports complex on Monday, the Ravi Kumar coached side, Chennai, romped home with an 80-57 win against Punjab Steelers to notch up their third win in as many matches.

Incidentally, last time when these two sides met was in the last year’s semifinal, wherein Chennai prevailed over their rivals by 15 points, to set up the final clash with Pune.

The defending champions Chennai did take some time to settle, but once they got into the groove there was nothing that could stop them.

“I fully agree they were off guard in the first two sessions, but thereafter they played well and Agu was the main force behind the victory,” said Ravi Kumar, about the proceedings of their encounter.

Chennai were trailing behind by one point at the end of the first quarter (14-15) but took a slender eight point lead half way through.

“They are playing back to back matches and that could be the reason. And Agu Sheriff Chuwunanu is injured, these could have been the reasons behind the late take off,” said coach.

Twenty-three points in the third session set the champions on the road to victory, as they raced to an 18-point lead. Ashutosh, Gopal and Bopanna came up with their best performances.

Chennai’s Ram Kumar was bang on target and his three-pointers made things easy for his team. Agu the play-maker, and his perfect defending caught the opponents on the wrong footing. Cammy Carmel, Ashutosh and Agu excelled in rebounds.

After Gopal, who was the first to score, Punjab held a slight edge in the first session, despite finding the target only when Chennai already had seven points on board.

Punjab’s Keshav led their attack with four three-pointers. However, the joy was short-lived as Chennai bounced back taking the second session, and from then, it was all Chennai, as they ran away with the match and full points, and remained unbeaten in this second edition of the basketball league.