Hyderabad: Hosts St Andrews School boys started their quest for title with a convincing win over Pallavi Model School (Alwal) 30-26 in the 14th edition of the St Andrew’s Inter School Basketball Tournament for the Dr Emily Emanuel trophy.
The match was close for most part as both the teams were concentrating more on defence, hence the low scoring encounter. Venkata Chaitanya of St Andrews was brilliant in drive-ins and was well supported by Suchir. Raj of Pallavi Model was scoring at regular intervals to keep their team in the hunt as Andrews led 13-11 at half time.
After change of ends Pallavi Model switched to full court man to man marking which affected the scoring of Andrews and aided by a 3-pointer from Prateek were leading 20-19. However, Chaitanya scored off an offensive rebound as St Andrews led 21-20 at end of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter Suchir of St Andrews used his height to good affect scoring three quick baskets from the paint to take a seven-point lead. Raj of Pallavi Model was kept in check with tight man to man marking as he was unable to score in the fourth quarter. Later, Andrews held onto the lead.
Andrews girls had a rather easy outing where they sailed past Pallavi Model School (Alwal) 24-7.
Nidhi and Pranavi used their height to telling affect to score from the paint as well as were able to block the offence of Shalini and Pooja of Pallavi Model School. Andrews led 8-3 at end of first quarter. In the second quarter too Nidhi and Pranavi continued in the same rhythm, with some accurate passes from Rishita to score easily as they led 16-5 at half time.
