49th PSG All India Basketball Tournament: ONGC, IOB & Southern Railway (women) through to Finals

Two cracking finals are on the cards, to be played on our Independence Day, to cap off this year’s PSG All India Basketball Tournament. The tournament is being organized by the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, with all the matches being held in their indoor sports complex.

Men’s dynasties ONGC and IOB will clash yet again to decide who gets to add silverware to their already overflowing trophy cabinets. In the women’s section, the unstoppable Southern Railway team will take on South Central Railway, which has impressed with their consistent showing in their previous league games.

The men’s semi-finals panned out exactly as expected. The star studded ONGC, Dehradun easily withstood all that Cochin Customs could throw at them. ONGC dominated the paint, courtesy centres Amrit Pal Singh and Murali Krishna, who helped them to a 20 point win.

In the second semifinal, IOB’s Pratham Singh and Amjyot Singh showcased the gains from their recent international exposure at the FIBA Asia Championships. Pratham had 24 and Amjyot contributed 20 to send Punjab packing. Vikramjit Singh’s valiant 25 point effort was the lone bright spark in Punjab’s offence, which could muster only 48 points through the four quarters.

In an intense women’s semi-final, South Central Railway got the better of Southeastern Central Railway. The match remained neck and neck throughout, with South Central eventually winning 75-65. South Central’s triple threat of Aashna, Anusha and Manda proved to be more impactful than Southeastern’s big three of Pushpa (26 pp), Deepa and Aakansha. Despite this win, South Central Railway face the ominous task of upsetting Southern Railway when they face each other in the finals.

In what turned out to be the most lop-sided semifinal of the day, Southern Railway (women) stormed into the finals. International star Anitha Paul Durai of Southern scored a massive 30 points en route to a 79-26 decimation of their opponents, Western Railway.

Semifinal Results (played on 14/8/12):

Men

1. ONGC, Dehradun 89 (Amrit Pal Singh 23, Murali Krishna R. 18, Riyazuddin 9, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 9) bt Cochin, Customs 69 (Eudrick Periera 16, Subhash J. Shenoy 15, Basil Philip 14)
2. IOB, Chennai 74 (Pratham Singh 24, Amjyot Singh 20, A. Aravind 14) bt Punjab State 48 (Vikramjit Singh 25, Ranbir Singh 7, Harwinderpreet Singh 6)

Women

1. South Central Railway 75 (Aashna Ujwanay 20, Anusha Antu 17, Manda Meshram 16) bt Southeastern Central Railway 65 (M. Pushpa 26, L. Deepa 11, Aakansha Singh 10)
2. Southern Railway 79 (Anitha Paul Durai 30, Alagu Tamil Mozhli 12, Neena Hareendran 11) bt Western Railway 26 (Renu Maurya 10, Sangeetha B. 4, Anamika 4, Sona M. 4, Bhavana Singh 4)