CHANDIGARH, NOV 22 : Loudly cheered by the hosts’ students, St Xavier’s Senior Secondary School, Sector 44 staged a remarkable rally to snatch a thrilling 56-53 verdict against their traditional rivals The New Public School, Sector 18, in the boys final of the Emily Memorial Basketball Tournament at the St Xavier’s School courts here today.
In a contrasting style The New Public School effortlessly clinched the girls trophy with a resounding 50-17 triumph over St Xavier’s Senior Secondary School, Sector 44. In a virtually one-sided match, NPS trio of Varsha Lakhera, Neha Sangwan and Megha Lakhera dominated the proceedings. Showing her scoring skills with accuracy, Varsha Lakhera contributed a lion’s share in NPS’ victory. She top scored with 23 points. Neha and Megha gave Varsha full support and scored 11 points each.
For St Xavier’s Harneet (9) did a fine job by scoring nine points.
The St Xavier’s School boys today were erratic in their shooting, specially in the first two quarters. Their players were wayward while trying to basket, even from under the ring. Play-maker energetic pint-sized Stanzin too failed to display his form he had exhibited in earlier matches. However, in the fourth and last quarter, St Xavier’s players regained their form and converted their deficit into profit.
At one stage St Xavier’s were trailing by 32-44. They slowly took control of the things. Gurjot (16) sunk a basket to reduce the margin to 45-48 in the fourth quarter. Then Stanzin (11, including two three pointers) converted a basket to make it 47-48. With two minutes remaining, NPS were leading by 51-49. With Bakul (8) converting a basket the teams were level at 51-all. With 1 minute and 45 seconds left, Sumit (8) of NPS came out after committing five individual fouls.
It was Gurjot who put St Xavier’s into the lead for the first time in the final by converting a rebound. The Star NPS player Sarfraj converted a free throw to make it 52-53. A timely three-pointer from the right side by Stanzin made it 56-52 for Xavier’s and only 40 seconds were left. At this stage, Stanzin also committed his quota of five individual fouls. However, Xavier’s were in a comfortable position. Though the NPS boys tried their best to bounce back into the game, they could not do much except adding only one point to their tally.
Anmol (18), Gurjot (16), Stanzin (11), Bakul (8) and Manjot (3) were the scorers for St Xavier’s.
For NPS, Sarfraj (20), Gurpinder (16), Sunmit (8), Deepak (6) and Navjot (3) were the marksmen for NPS.
Gurjot (St Xavier’s-44) and Varsha (NPS-18) were declared the best players of the tournament.
The prizes were jointly distributed by Mrs Rosy Bell (Australia), Mrs Natilada Arab (Tanzania), Mrs Mary Barlow (Kanpur), Mrs Merlyn Francis (Director Finance Secretary, St Xavier’s-44).
Andrew Gosain, chairman, St Xavier’s Schools, was also present on the occasion.
Results (finals):
Boys: St Xavier’s-44 (Anmol 18, Manjot 3, Gurjot 16, Bakul 8, Stanzin 11) bt The New Public School-18 (Sumit 8, Deepak 6, Sartaj 20, Gurpinder 16, Navjot 3) by 56-53.
Girls: NPS-18 (Varsha Lakhera 23, Neha Sangwan 11, Megha Lakhera 11, Hareetinder 4, Amandeep 1) bt St Xavier’s-44 (Mankanwar 2, Harneet 9, Adeline 2, Ritu 2) by 50-17.