Federation Cup: Punjab Police overcomes Hissar Club in high-scoring game

The Punjab squad exploited a porous Hissar defence, Sukhdeep in particular scoring almost at will. Neither side made a conscious effort to protect its half, resulting perhaps in the tournament’s highest scoring game so far.

MEG forward Amal James whose 25 points went in vain as his side lost to IOB in the Federation Cup basketball championship at Chittoor on Wednesday.

Punjab Police overcame Hissar Club 91-73 in their men’s group B match of the senior Federation Cup basketball championship at the Chittoor District Sports Authority stadium court on Wednesday night. On court 1, ONGC toyed with Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh 74-42.

The Punjab squad exploited a porous Hissar defence, Sukhdeep in particular scoring almost at will. Neither side made a conscious effort to protect its half, resulting perhaps in the tournament’s highest scoring game so far.

Earlier, Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Chennai staved off a stiff challenge from Madras Engineer Group (MEG), Bengaluru to win 85-70, after the latter came as close as 36-39 during the changeover.

When the tall and wiry Manu Thomas mopped up the defensive rebounds, there was a sharp decline in IOB’s scoring from 30-18 in the opening 10 minutes to 39-36 by half-time. Induction of the seasoned Vineeth Mathew proved hugely beneficial for the bankers as he combined with Siva Balan to score steadily from the paint area, netting almost every attempt in the process.

For MEG, Amal James’ scorching solo runs found him invariably within the firing range of the opponent’s backboard. When the semi-circle proved hard to breach, he deployed three-pointers while being spot-on from close quarters too, one under-basket showcasing his highly opportunistic forays.  

The results

Men: A: Customs & Central Excise 78 (Nikhil K.R. 22, Basil Philip 15) bt BSF 54 (Bharathdeep Singh 19, Gurvinder Singh 18); ONGC bt SAAP 74 (Arjun Singh 12, Yadwinder Singh 14, Muin Bek Hafeez 20) bt SAAP 42 (C. Naveen 19). B: IOB 85 (G. Siva Balan 15, Aravind Annaduri 13, Vineeth  Mathew 13) bt MEG 70 (Rahul Sharath 17, Amal James 25, Jijin Joseph 8); Punjab Police 91 (Dilpreet 19, Sukhdeep Pal 26, Satnam Singh Bhamara 9, Ranbir Singh 16) bt Hissar Club 73 (Vikas Kumar 24, Deepak Rathee 22).   Women: A: Karnataka 69 (Priyanka P. 16, Navaneetha 16) bt Chhattisgarh 55 (Sakshi Pandey 27, Gulabsha Ali 16); TN 46 (S. Rajeshwari 13) bt AP 26 (N. Padmavati 9). B: Eastern Railway 57 (Madhu Kumari 10, Salma Devi 9) bt Delhi 21 (Vidhi 7); Maharashtra 55 (Sruthi Menon 22, Mughda 9) bt Telangana 26 (Mrunalini 8, Manasa 7).