MHBC go down fighting in SVK Memorial Basketball Tournament

Hyderabad: Mahendra Hills Basketball Club (MHBC) went down fighting 58-64 to Customs & GST in the third Samuel Vasanth Kumar Memorial Basketball Tournament at YMCA Secunderabad on Tuesday. At half-time, the winner led 41-24.

Smaller in size and pitted against the Customs squad that had many Telangana and Andhra Pradesh state players in their ranks, MHBC's fight-back came a little late in the day and in the concluding quarter.

Nonetheless, they erased much of the deficit of the earlier sessions, when they trailed 10-24 in the first and 38-53 in the third. Point guard Aashray Daniel was in the forefront of MHBC's attack, ably assisted by Nitesh and forward Amit Yadav a press release said.

It was a rain of three-pointers from Customs & GST, M. Vijay Kumar being its leading marksman. His 16- point tally was studded with as many as five hits from outside the 'D.'

The reigning champion made sure it never let go of the lead, even if the margins dropped as the match progressed.

For the first time in the country, the Spalding leather ball was used on an experimental basis by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) under the observation of Norman Isaac, Chairman of its Technical Commission and also the ongoing six-day championship's Tournament Director.

The event, held in memory of the late BFI referee and sports journalist, is organised jointly by the Hyderabad District Basketball Association (HDBA) and the Sports Writers Association of Telangana (SWAT).

The score: Customs & GST 64 (Venkat Reddy 23, M.Vijay Kumar 16) bt Mahendra Hills Basketball Club 58 (Daniel Aashray 16, Nitesh 15, Amit Yadav 10)