Chennai: Praveen Kumar lead Indian Overseas Bank to a hard-fought 55-48 victory over ONGC (Dehradun) in the men's final of the third all-India annual basketball tournament for the Jeppiaar Trophy at the JJ Indoor Stadium here on Friday.
Introduced in the third quarter, the ball-handler gave IOB the vital breakthroughs with beautiful drives-in and lay-ups and, of course, brilliant passing.
IOB started tentatively, missing a lot of rebounds. Slowly and steadily, it regrouped.
ONGC didn't let up its guard and was relatively consistent in shooting, relying on pivot Murali Krishna and Anoop to score. IOB had a 17-15 lead by the end of the first quarter.
IOB struggled to keep the scoreboard ticking in the second quarter. ONGC was no better. IOB's Vineeth Revi Mathew, who was impeccable in the semifinals, missed quite a few offensive rebounds. So did his team-mates Mihir Pandey and Hareesh Koroth.
At half-time, ONGC led 26-23. Praveen came in for the third quarter and made things happen for IOB. His speed coupled with his feints and his effortless drives-in provided IOB the confidence it was lacking till then. Soon, Hareesh and Mihir regained their touch, and IOB took the upper hand.
ONGC was not finished yet. Trailing 41-37 in the fourth quarter, Trideep Rai, who had struggled throughout the match, came up with a three-pointer. But IOB's Pratam Singh took the match away from the Dehradun-based team with a three-pointer with less than three minutes remaining.
ONGC certainly missed the services of Riazuddin, who had injured his knee in the semifinals.
This was IOB's maiden title in the tournament, having finished third and fourth in the last two editions. On the other hand, ONGC was unlucky for the third consecutive year, emerging second best every time. IOB received Rs.110,000 while ONGC had to settle for Rs.80,000.
Rikin S. Pethani of Sathyabama received the ‘best player of the tournament' award.
The results: Men: Final: IOB 55 (Vineeth Revi Mathew 14, Hareesh Koroth 10) bt ONGC 48 (Murali Krishna 10, Anoop 10). Third place play-off: Sathyabama 74 (Rikin S Pethani 22, Raghu Ram 17, Vignesh 18) bt Indian Army 67 (Gopal Ram 12, Navneet Singh 12, Arockia Babu 11) .
The Hindu
