IT, minus 3 assets, easy prey for Navy

Income-Tax were without three key players — international Mahesh Naidu (nursing a sore hamstring), Clarence Menezes (a knee injury he suffered at last month’s senior Nationals), and Shrihari Garge (away to Nagpur following his grandfather’s death). Their absence left too many holes for Navy to exploit, and the final result would have been more one-sided had not Income-Tax held sway on the offence boards. Over 25 per cent of the team’s points came from offensive rebounding.

Navy had a superior floor defence, their point guards Jophy Kurian and Venkitesh, the player of the final, mounting pressure on the Tax ball-handlers, causing too many fumbles and steals for Tax’s comfort.

Somaiya, especially pivot Ralph Gomes, were below par in the junior boys final, where Ralph had an ugly mix-up with a couple of Mastan boys in the first half. The players came to blows, and the game was halted for a few minutes.

Results (both finals)

Men: Indian Navy, Lonavla 80 (Venkitesh 17 (5×3), Vinod Kumar 12, DK Mali 27, Jophy Kurian 13, Thomas 11) bt Income-Tax 60 (Satish Warrier 18, Stephen Rodrigues 23) HT 35-33.

Junior boys: Somaiya 63 (Aijaz Shaikh 14, Ralph Gomes 15, Nilesh Jadhav 15) bt Mastan YMCA 58 (Aamir Ansari 14, Sharique shaikh 17, Suleman Patel 10) HT 35-39.