Beatrice dethrone All Stars in basketball league

Top Stories

Imperial Knights and Earnest Eagles enter final of the 10th Indian Basketball League

By Moni Mathews (principal Correspondent)

  • Follow us on
  • google-news
  • whatsapp
  • telegram

Published: Wed 27 May 2015, 11:55 AM

Last updated: Thu 30 Nov 2023, 4:17 PM

Dubai — Nucaf Beatrice wrote in a new chapter in the club history when they entered the title round of the Berry Hills 10 Indian Basketball League 2015 at the Salahuddin hall in Mamzar.

Before they can entertain ideas of etching their name on the rolling trophy, they have to ward off the game fighters Imperial Knights in the summit clash.


Nucaf Beatrice had 74 on board thanks to the great combination work between Aaron 17, Sathyajith 16, Muzammil 13 and Ahraz Asad 10 before overcoming ANF All Stars’ 65 where Bimal Raj 17, Manoj Abraham 14 and Roger 11 helped in the compilation work.

Imperial Knights downed Blue Rhine Eagles 66-65 in the thrilling first semifinal as Subin 20; Shajahan 12 and Nihal Azad 10 struck awesome form to douse Blue Rhine Eagles’ who had Abhimanyu Dabbas 20 and Usman Kunda 19 hitting fine form. The Sunil Mathew coached Eagles were edged out by the determined Knights’ defence.


Earnest Eagles advanced into the women’s division finals and will take on power house and undisputed queens of women’s league basketball here — DPS-Sharjah.

DPS had qualified for the final earlier during the week. Earnest Eagles outgunned Saintz Arabian Gazelles by a margin of 21 points for a 55-34 victory.

Champs All Stars started their campaign without their lanky pivot player Sideek Razak and struggled in the first quarter itself. However they scored 13 against 7 in the quarter. Beatrice stunned their opponents in the second period.

They went on a 26-12 run and established a 33-25 halftime lead. Razak came on to the stage in the third quarter as All Stars re-organised their squad and came close to Beatrice’s score but the speedy youngsters of Beatrice created havoc in the All Stars defence.

Aaron, Satyajith and Shijas pounced on the the All Stars defences and Sathyajith’s three – 3-point shots became decisive in the third quarter as they entered the fourth quarter up by 16 points (58-42). All Stars unloaded 23 points this time against 16 in the last quarter which went in vain for the defending champions.

Imperial Knights escaped with a narrow thrilling win over Blue Rhine Eagles after establishing a fairly sound 39-30 halftime lead. Eagles pulled within 5 points at the intermission for a 43-48 readout. Eagles turned things around in the last quarter as the match went neck-n-neck and the lead changed hands and Knights scored a free throw in the dying moments to clinch victory.

Earnest Eagles sat pretty with a 36-20 halftime lead. Jyothi came up with 23 points and Atma added 20 for the winners with brilliant four — 3 point conversions in the game which was more closely fought than what the final scoreline suggests. Avelyn Jean Maria and Reshma responded with 9 points each for the losers.

moni@khaleejtimes.com


More news from Local Sports