Ghatkopar YMCA in Jr boys final

MUMBAI, JAN 2: The bone of poor conversions stuck in Fr Agnel's throat, as the hosts choked in the fourth quarter to go down 37-43 to Bha...

MUMBAI, JAN 2: The bone of poor conversions stuck in Fr Agnel’s throat, as the hosts choked in the fourth quarter to go down 37-43 to Bhanu Talim Sangh (BTS), Sangli in a mini boys league match of the 2nd Fr Agnel Open basketball tournament at Vashi today. The losers, however, qualified for the quarter-final after finishing second in their pool.

In a crucial youth girls match, Indian Gymkhana played way below par. But they could afford to, as opponents Fatima lacked the ranks to wage a full-fledged war. Gymkhana made heavy weather the 31-23 win, even as tall international Anita Krishnan saved Fatima the blushes by getting some points on the board.

BTS relied heavily on K Swapnil and P Anand for baskets, and their tally swelled in the first and fourth quarters, when the duo operated in tandem.

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But Agnel fought back and wiped out the 6-17 first quarter deficit. While John Anthony did the bulk of the scoring, tiny Sino Chacko impressed with maturity much beyond his 11 years.

Agnel went into the fourthquarter with a slender 32-29 lead, but a flagrant foul and a turnover in the closing minutes swung the game BTS’ way.

Yesterday night, Ghatkopar YMCA waged a rousing comeback to defeat state youth champions Green Star, Solapur 55-47 in the junior boys semi-final. It was the inspiring play of pivot Ralph Gomes, who deserves a statue for his good work this season, and some good ball control in the closing minutes that helped Ghatkopar make the grade, despite having their sensible ball-handler Ashish Lad sitting out for a major part of the match after running up four fouls in the first ten minutes.

RESULTS

Men (qualifying rounds): Chembur YMCA 41 (S Rajgopal 14, Vijay Neygandhi 9) bt St Peter, Bandra 24 (Nilesh Jadhav 12) HT 16-4.

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Junior boys (semis): Mastan YMCA 56 (Rizwan Shaikh 20, Shailesh Saldanha 14) bt BTS, Sangli 41 (Mahesh Nagane 18, Anil Sankpal 9) HT 24-18; Ghatkopar YMCA 55 (Ralph Gomes 26, Manoj Choudhary 9, Aijaz Shaikh 9) bt Green Star, Solapur 47 (Daniel Kamble 22, Atul Rone12) HT 24-25.

Youth boys (league): Youngsters, Pune 36 (Nikhil Palande 12, N Omkal 8) bt Vincent, Pune 24 (Siddharth Aphale 6) HT 23-13; School of Basketball 45 (Prashant 14, Shaili 12) bt Youngsters, Pune 12 (Hrishikesh Borkar 4) HT 29-7; BTS, Sangli 52 (Milind Kadam 21, Anil Sankpal 14) bt Deccan Gymkhana, Pune 36 (Ninad Patkar 14) HT 31-23.

Mini boys (league): Loyola, Pune 48 (Karan Shetty 10, Karna Mehta 10) bt Mastan YMCA 38 (Junaid Shaikh 9) HT 16-12; BTS, Sangli 43 (Anand P 11, Swapnil K 12) bt Agnel 37 (John Anthony 21) HT 20-22

Youth girls (Q/F): Indian Gymkhana 31 (Krupa Temkar 12, Akruti Desai 9) bt Fatima 23 (Anita Krishnan 18) HT 20-10; Agradneya 42 (Madhura Bodas 12, Gayatri Manolikar 6) bt Agnel 11 (Anjali 5) HT 24-3.

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