Mumbai: Punjab rallied to overcome Services 82-68 in an interesting men's Group-B round-robin match of the UPL-9th Savio Cup All-India Basketball Tournament here today.
In another match, Federation Cup champions ONGC outplayed Maharashtra 78-58 after enjoying a 41-29 half-time lead, for their second successive win in Group-A of the event organised by the Don Bosco Recreation Centre.
In another men's Group A clash, IOB, Tamil Nadu, continued their winning run, crushing a listless Income Tax 76-37. The southern team had outplayed Maharashtra 93-69 in their opening match the previous day.
The sturdy Punjab outfit trailed Services 31-39 after the opening two quarters, but came back strongly in the third, shooting 33 points as against only six by their rivals at the Don Bosco High School court in Matunga.
In the first-quarter, the scores were even at 14-all before Services took control of the second, scoring 25 points as compared to the 17 by Punjab, to take an eight points lead at the break.
But Punjab came roaring back with a solid performance in the next and a satisfying effort in the fourth to clinch the issue in their favour.
Palpreet Singh, with 21 points, and Arjun Singh (20) were responsible for Punjab’s win, while Ram Gopal (18) and Anton Nixon (11) were the main scorers for the losing side.
The leading scorers for ONGC against the host state were Trideep Rai (18 points) and Amritpal Singh (16), while Saurabh (11) was the only Maharashtra player to get into double figures.
IOB started off in rousing fashion against the taxmen as they started shooting consistently and also put up a dogged defence.
Having gained a stranglehold of the proceedings, the bankmen charged to a 31-4 lead in the first quarter and increased it to 59-14 by the halfway stage.
IOB slackened the pace in the remaining two quarters and, with no fight evident from Income Tax, they cantered to their second straight victory and enhance their chance of entering the semi-final stage.
