2nd Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty All India Basketball Tournament 2015: Semifinalists confirmed

Aravind Arumugam of Vijaya Bank (blue) in action

In a decisive day final day of league matches, Income Tax-Chennai (Pool A), hosts Vijaya Bank and Kerala State Electricity Board (Pool B) are through to the semifinals of the 2nd Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty All India Basketball Tournament 2015. The second semifinalists from Pool A will be dependent on the outcome of the last league match between ONGC, Dehradun and Punjab State that will be played later tonight.

The Championship, featuring leading Indian men’s club teams, is being organised by Vijaya Bank under the auspices of Basketball Federation of India and Karnataka State Basketball Association, at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium, Bengaluru.

In the first match of the day, the seasoned Income Tax-Chennai pros taught the young Karnataka lads a lesson or two in ball movement, offensive rebounding and pressure defense, en route to their convincing 79-59 win. Karnataka though should be credited for keeping it almost neck and neck in the first half. With their perfect 3-0 record, Income Tax, Chennai has ended the league stages on top of Pool A. They will face KSEB in the first semifinals tomorrow (10th Oct 2015).

The second match was a crucial encounter between Pool B teams KSEB and South Central Railway, Hyderabad. A win for Railway could have led to a potential three way tie at the second spot. But KSEB made sure no such complication arose, with a hard fought 73-56 win. Shooting guard Albin Baby found his scoring touch with a combination of jumpshots and layups to lead all scorers with 28 points. South Central Railways’ Naveen was the only player for his side in double digits, as SCR ended winless after their three league games.

In many ways the third match was a repeat of a first, as a dominant team in hosts Vijaya Bank faced off against a middling one i.e. Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. Right from the get go, the Bankers led and continued building up a lead. At half-time the score was 49-37, which included a couple of two handed dunks by India power forward Arvind Arumugam. The final score of 90-67 has meant that hosts Vijaya Bank have cruised to a perfect 3-0 record and into the semifinals as Pool B toppers. In the process, ICF-Chennai, which needed to upset the bankers to have a chance of progressing to the knockouts, have fallen just short.

RESULTS (9/10/2015)

Pool A: Income Tax, Chennai (Rikin Pethani 23, Bopanna 17, Hakeem 12) bt Karnataka State (Chethan 15, Ganesh 13) 79-59[20-13, 15-10, 20-12, 24-24]

Pool B: Kerala State Electricity Board (Albin Baby 28, Ashwin Xavier 14, Tony K Mathew 11) bt South Central Railway (Naveen 17, Nihal Yadav 8) 73-56 [24-17, 16-9, 22-15, 11-15]; Vijaya Bank (Rajesh Uppar 22, Anil Kumar 20, Arvind Arumugam 18) btIntegral Coach Factory, Chennai (Praveen Kumar 21, C Seenivasan 14, K Mukunth 11) 90-67 [30-18, 19-19, 28-11, 13-19]

Late evening Results from 8/10/2015

Pool B: Integral Coach Factory, Chennai (Praveen K 32, Mukunth 16) bt South Central Railway (David Boon 12, Sujith Reddy 11) 93-67 [24-16, 27-23, 21-12, 21-26]