Ludhiana schools, Chennai colleges win titles in national basketball league

New Delhi, May 4 (IANS) Boys and girls teams from Ludhiana emerged victorious in the school division while Chennai teams took top honours in the college division of the first BFI-IMG Reliance National School and College Basketball League at the Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium here Sunday.

Jeppiar Institute of Technology, Chennai, edged Government College, Ludhiana, 88-85 in overtime to take home the college men’s title.

Ludhiana’s Palpreet Singh scored a match-high 42 points while teammate Harmandeep added 31, but it wasn’t enough as a brilliant team performance by the Chennai side saw them through.

Arun Hari banked 28 points with Shashank contributing 24 to Jeppiar’s cause.

In the college women’s final, MOP Vaishnav College, Chennai, pulled off a stunning one-point victory over SBM Jain College, Bangalore.

With only a few seconds left in the match, MOP Vaishnav’s captain Diviya showed great composure in a pressure cooker atmosphere, to knock down her free throw and take her side to a memorable 74-73 win.

In the first final of the day, Government Girls Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana beat St. Joseph HS, Chennai, 59-55 in a low-scoring final.

Ludhiana’s captain Samriti continued her scoring spree in the tournament, top scoring for her team with 24 points.

The second school finals was a rematch from an earlier round between the boys teams of Sr. Nav Bharti Public School, Ludhiana and Fr. Agnels School, Mumbai.

Sr Nav Bharti had already beaten Agnels earlier and came into the championship match unbeaten and on a roll, having breached the 100-point scoring barrier in their last two matches.

They put one over their opponents once again beating them 97-85.

While Sr. Nav Bharti depended heavily on their two junior international players, centre Gurwinder Singh Gill and point guard Loveneet Atwal, Fr. Agnels were led by a superhuman effort by point guard Rohon, who shot an incredible 11 three-pointers for 37 points in total.

All four winning teams from the four categories (school girls, school boys, college women and college men) were awarded Rs.1 lakh each while the runnersup took home Rs.75,000 each.