Loyola Academy, St. Francis emerge champions in GM Sampath Kumar Annual Basketball League

In the men’s final, Loyola defeated Nizam Basketball Academy 93-69 while St. Francis women recorded a hard-fought 38-36 win against YMCA Secunderabad in the other final

HYDERABAD: Loyola Academy (Alwal) and St. Francis Degree College (Begumpet) won the men’s and women’s titles respectively in the GM Sampath Kumar Annual Basketball League Championship at YMCA Secunderabad here on Friday.

In the men’s final, Loyola defeated Nizam Basketball Academy 93-69 while St. Francis women recorded a hard-fought 38-36 win against YMCA Secunderabad in the other final.

For the men’s winning team, Majid (26), Steve (21) were the lead scorers with Vivek (14) and Vignesh (12) giving them good support. For the losers, Charan (22) was the lead scorer.

In the women’s final, YMCA started well with Lasya using her height to good effect scoring from the paint and aided with two three-pointers from Jahnavi, raced to a 20 – 3 lead at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Sristi and Rekha scored a three-pointer apiece to reduce the lead to 20 – 13 in favour of YMCA. After the lemon break, St. Francis switched to man to man defence to restrict YMCA to just two points. But in a dramatic turn-around scored 13 points through Parinishta and Rekha to reduce the lead further as YMCA led 29 – 26 at the end of the third quarter.

Within minutes of the last quarter, scores were level 29 – 29, thereafter the match went neck to neck. With just 30 seconds left, scores were level 36 – 36 when Abigail of St. Francis scored from the paint to make it 38 – 36 to win the match.

Brief scores

Finals: 

Men: Loyola Academy 93 (Majid 26, Steve 21, Vivek 14, Vignesh 12) beat Nizam Basketball Academy 69 (Charan 22, Balaji 14, Anthony 13).

Women: St. Francis 38 (Rekha 12, Parinishta 10) beat YMCA Sec’bad 36 (Lasya 10).