CHANDIGARH, MAY 1 : Oxford School, New Delhi scraped past The Bhavan’s Prominent, Indore by 76-74 in the 1st BFI-IMG Reliance National School & College Basketball League at the Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium in New Delhi today.
Oxford School led by almost ten points in the final few minutes and looked to have sealed the match, when Bhavan’s Laxman T hit a flurry of three pointers to bring life back into the contest. However, his 36 valiant points were in vain as Oxford won their second straight match to qualify for the semifinals with one league game still remaining.
In other school matches, the girls from Bangalore (Bishop Cotton HS) and Delhi (Modern School) too have qualified for the semifinals from Pool A, having won their first two league matches quite easily. They will go head on later tomorrow to decide the top seed from their pool.
Also qualifying for the final four is the exciting boys team from Senior Nav Bharti Public School Ludhiana, which won a tense league battle against Yelammal HS. Yelammal HS surprisingly led for the first three quarters against a star studded team which featured junior international forward Gurwinder Singh Gill and senior international guard Loveeneet Singh. In the final ten minutes however, the Ludhiana side pulled ahead due to its superior physicality, size and experience. These two teams are favourites for a final rematch.
Among college teams, Bangalore (SBM Jain College) and New Delhi (Kirori Mal College) won their second straight games to qualify for the semifinals from Pool A. However, three teams from Kolkata (La Martiniere HS—school girls; Nalanda Vidyapeeth—school boys; and IIT Kharagpur—college men) have been knocked out from this tournament after failing to win any of their matches. St Xavier’s College is the only team remaining in the competition in the college women’s section.
Results:
Bishop Cotton HS 72 (Aksa Avez 18, Lopamudra TK, Shanice D 13) bt Nalanda Vidyapeeth 13 (Bimla T 5, Yasmine K 3) [QT wise scores: 17-1; 18-1; 14-8; 23-3]
SBM Jain College, Bangalore 80 (Vinoth Kumar 21, Kaif Zia 15) bt IIT Kharagpur 48 (Rajan Bajaj 18, Naresh Chandra 8) [QT wise scores: 35-9; 10-3; 22-20; 13-6]
Podar College, Mumbai 48 (Ankita Negi 21, Sarah Voda 8) bt Loyola Academy, Hyderabad 36 (Akshita Rao 12, Rama Mishra 8) [QT wise scores: 11-10; 11-7; 11-13; 15-6]
Delhi Public School, Bangalore 69 (Mukul Mahendra 23, Anish Bhadmik 10) bt La Martiniere HS 45 (Raghav S 25, Gaurav S 8) [QT wise scores: 22-12; 21-7; 13-14; 13-12]
Modern School, New Delhi 70 (Madhu K 30, Ananya S 19, Rashi D 10) bt Emerald Heights, Indore 63 (Princy S R 35, Monal S 14, Isha Chauhan 12) [QT wise scores: 15-11; 18-13; 22-19; 15-20]
Oxford School, New Delhi 76 (Abhishek T 35, Sohal Gahlot 19, Saurav Y 16) bt The Bhavan’s Prominent, Indore 74 (Laxman T 36, Mayank B 16, Akash S 10) [QT wise scores: 21-16; 17-16; 18-21; 20-21]
Loyola College, Hyderabad 90 (Sri Ganesh 34, T Uday 15, Shaik 15) bt KC College, Mumbai 79 (Paras 20, Aqib Khan 16, Mearaj 15) [QT wise scores: 22-19; 23-17; 22-21; 23-22]
Kirori Mal College, New Delhi 77 (Aditya Raj 15, Yudhvir Singh 12, Pulkit Sachdeva 12) bt Islamiya Karmiya DC, Indore 50 [QT wise scores: 23-21; 28-11; 16-8; 10-10]
Sr. Nav Bharti Public School, Ludhiana 94 (Rahul M 21, Loveneet Singh 19) bt Yelammal HS 85 (Surya A 27, Lokesh M 16) [QT wise scores: 18-21; 24-24; 24-15; 28-25]
Ludhiana Government Senior Secondary School 60 (Samriti 25, Gagandeep K 19) bt St Joseph HS, Chennai 47 (Devi R 27, Nishanth 8) [QT wise scores: 23-17; 11-7; 16-11; 10-12]
Ludhiana Women’s College 71 (Nagma Mirza 34, Kirandeep Kaur 24) bt MOP Vaishnav College Chennai (Diviya K 29, Mildred Freeman 18, Diviya P 14) 63 [QT wise scores: 11-6; 14-13; 23-16; 23-28]