Double delight for Sathyabama, bags SZ and All India titles

Chennai, Jan 11 (UNI) Sathyabama University, Chennai, made it a grand double annexing both the South zone and the All India Inter-zonal Inter-University Basketball tournament at Pudukkottai last night.

After bagging the South zone title a few days back, Sathyabhama, in the final last night, raised its performance by several notches in the second quarter, to score a comfortable 76-47 win over Punjabi University to bag the All India title also.

In the play-off match for the third and fourth places, Punjab defeated Kurukshetra 60-41.

What started as a keen affair, faded into a lop-sided affair once Sathybhama cagers tightened the defence and picked the rebounds well to take a 17 point lead at half time (42-25).

There was nothing much to separate the two sides at the end of the first quarter. But Sathyabama looked a totally different side in the second. Once it tightened up the defence, Punjabi cagers found the going really tough. Sathyabama shooters also started scoring freely, thanks to some accurate passing.

After resumption, there was no perceptible change in the script as Sathyabhama's domination continued, with Punjabi hoopsters finding hard to break the shackles.

Thanks to some excellent outside shooting and rebound collections, Sathyabama wrought havoc scoring three pointers at will, with Purushoth Kumar and Augustine being outstanding.

As Sathyabhama kept enlarging the lead, Punjabi waged a losing battle and had to be content with the runner-up spot.

Purushoth Kumar top scored for Sathyabhama with 22 points.

The victorious team, which arrived here from Pudukkottai, was accorded a rousing reception at the varsity campus, where University Chancellor Jeppiar felicitated the winners.

Results: Final: Sathyabama 76 (Purushoth Kumar 22, Shinumon Augustine 14, Antony Viagulamil 10) bt Punjabi 47 (Gurbat Singh 14, Gurjit Singh 13).

Third place: Punjab 60 (Amandeep Singh 22, Gursimran Singh 16) bt Kurukshetra 41 (Vikas 16).

Semifinals: Punjabi 61 (Gurbat Singh 17) bt Kurukshetra 48 (Sudhir 18); Sathyabama 65 (Shinumon Augustine 18, Titus 13, Manoj 11) bt Punjab 45 (Gagandeep Singh 15).

UNI GV RKM KP1332