YMCA Secunderabad, Secunderabad Club, Omega Basketball Club and Victory Playground stormed into the quarterfinals of the Club League Basketball Championship organised by the Hyderabad District Basketball Association. Secunderabad Club defeated St. Martin’s Club 74-62; Secunderabad YMCA raised their game in the final quarter to register a 81-70 win over City College Basketball Club; Omega Basketball Club pulled off a stunning 56-49 win over Nizam Basketball Academy ‘A’ and strong contenders Victory Playground beat Secunderabad YMCA Alumni 58-36.
In the pre-quarterfinals, St Martin’s went into an early 10-point lead with Akhil and Benna rattling the Secunderabad Club defence with their precision passing and accurate shooting. Aman Mahmood and Rohan from the winners’ side took time to settle down and with Kaushik Poola coming off the bench Secunderabad Club managed to lead 29-27 at halftime. In a high-scoring third quarter, Kaushik scored five three-pointers and with Akhil and Benna doing the same for the losing side as a whopping 57 points overall were scored by both sides.
The final quarter saw Aman and Rohan find the basket while Vidhura and Abhiram were excellent in defence and collection of rebounds as Secunderabad Club sealed a well-fought victory. Meanwhile, Secunderabad YMCA owed their entry into the quarters to Prudhvi Reddy who singlehandedly brought down the City College defence with his body feints and breakaways into the rival cordon. David and Mustafa gave admirable support to Prudhvi as YMCA led 32-31 at halftime before stretching the lead to seal the win.
Nizam Basketball Academy, who have been one of the top teams leading up to the pre-quarters, were at the receiving end with Arun Kumar, Sai Kumar and Abhinay taking new entrants Omega Basketball Club off to a solid start with their fast paced attack. Arun and Sai were superb with their shot selection and, as they wove their way into the restricted area, the NBA players could do little to stop them. On the other hand Abhinay, using his reach, was collecting the rebounds on both boards, converting from second attempts to see his side clinch the encounter 56-29.
