Home challengers Nagpada Basketball Association (NBA) rode on the brilliance of sharpshooter Raza H, who with a later charge shot 11 points, including a three pointer.
Raza sunk a decisive basket just before the final whistle which helped NBA scrape past Savio Club by a tight 60-58 margin in a thrilling and keenly contested Junior boys’ under-18 semi-final match of the Nagpada Basketball Association (NBA) organised NBA Invitational Basketball tournament and played under floodlights at the NBA basketball courts.
The match witnessed a close tussle for supremacy and there was not much to separate between to two teams and the scores were tied at 25-all at the break. The match seemed to heading for an even finish with the scores locked at 58-all, before Raza, who top-scored with 23 points, came up with a last ditch effort shooting the winning basket to seal NBA’s win.
The second semi-final was also an absorbing affair and Fr. Agnel Gymkhana after enjoying a 20-12 half-time lead managed to beat back a strong challenge from Mastan YMCA to clinch a slender 45-44 victory and advance to the final.
In men’s semi-final encounters, Mastan YMCA easily defeated Savio Club 78-57 (half-time: 38-26) and Transpire SC got the better of Central Railway 80-77 (half-time: 37-38) to set up a clash in the summit round.
Results (semi-finals)
Men: Mastan YMCA: 78 (Kshaunish Kapoor 16, Shamsher S 15, Ashraf Siddiqui 18, Sameer Qureshi 17, Salman K 8) bt Savio Club: 57 (Vinayak D 10, Yash C 15, Saurabh K 23) (half-time: 38-26).
Transpire SC: 80 (Ajinkya Mane 11, Yousuf Sayyed 23, Shinde C 28, Sanket Kalbhor 10) bt Central Railway: 77 (Melvin M 13, Raj K 22, Fardeen K 17, Kartik C 10, Lavneet S 14) (half-time: 37-38).
Junior Boys (under-18): Fr. Agnel Gymkhana (Parth K. 13, Aaqib Z. 11, Stefan D. 10) beat Mastan YMCA (Afaiz A. 10, Haziq K. 9, Huzaifa K. 8, Taufiq K. 7, Haris S. 6) 45-44 (Half-time: 20-12).
Nagpada Basketball Association (Raza H. 5 23, (5 bask, 1x3 n winning basket), Faiz A. 13, Adnan K. 12) beat Savio Club (Sanklap P. 21, Aman D. 10, Sailesh C. 12) 60-58 (Half-time: 25-25).
