Basketball Network, a team of talented youngsters without a home to practice, put up fine performance as they outplayed Podar 45-31 to move into the boys under-18 quarterfinals of the Mastan YMCA Basketball tournament, hosted by Bombay YMCA’s Physical Education Department at their floodlit courts at Agripada today.
The Network boys were quite relentless under the offensive basket as they repeatedly shoot baskets at will. But for early stages, when Podar boys matched them in their counter-attacking game. However, they could not maintain the tempo for long. The Basketball Network coach Nizar Ahmed said they don’t have their own place to practice and he has to look for courts elsewhere to train his boys.
In the men’s section, NBA (Nagpada Basketball Association)were off to impressive start as they outplayed Team 360 by 38 points (84-46).In the other men’s tie, Bandra YMCA defeated NMSA (Navi Mumbai Sports Association) 47-25.
In the mini boys section, Indian Gymkhana, after trailing for a while in the first two quarters, overpowered hosts Mastan YMCA 27-21. In the same section, Central YMCA thrashed NBA ‘D’ 19-8 and Team-360 downed Vibgyor 34-16.
Results :
Men: (Pre-quarterfinals): NBA 84(Mosin Shaikh 16,Fauzan Shaikh 14, Sk Aaquib 10) bt Team 360 -46 (Prabhat Das15,Nilesh Yadav 12).Bandra YMCA 47 (Ayaz Shaikh12, Ansh Ramnani 8) bt NMSA 25 (Satbir Sngh 10).
Boys-U-18: Basketball Network 45 (Siddharth Dahiye 14, Vedant Chauhan 12, Aayush Chande 8) bt Podar 31 (Rahul Mehta 8, Sharan Santhan 8).
Boys-U-13; Chembur YMCA 19 (Rajiv Kartik 9) bt NBA ‘C’ 13 (Irfan Khan 7). Team 360 – 34 (Dufare S. 16) bt Vibgyor (Goregaon)16 (Varun Singh 8). Indian Gymkhana 27 (Rutva Shetty 14) bt Mastan YMCA 21 ( Kaif Khan 8).