NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 14: ASC, spearheaded by the lanky and experienced Phool Singh, defeated Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) 80-71 in a see-saw semi-final battle in the Royal Club Basketball tournament at the Shri Ram College of Commerce courts here today. ASC will take on CRPF, who defeated AHQ Signals 79-61 in a keen encounter, in the finals to be played tomorrrow.As expected, both the semi-finals had all the trappings of clashes between titans and witnessed some fast breaks from all the teams. Despite surging ahead, ASC were given a good fight by CISF but with Phool Singh allowed to score freely, the task was always going to be difficult for their rivals.
Phool Singh was somewhat outwitted by his teammate GRL Prasad as the latter topscored with 29 points while the former had to be content with 24. Tharsam Singh (14) was the other main scorer for ASC. For CISF, H.C. Babu led with 21 points while Vinay (19) and Hansraj (13) made useful contributions.
In the second game, CRPF held upperhand for most part of the first half before AHQ Signals could close in on their lead. Sanjay Mohanty and Eshfak were the topscorers for the winners with 19 points each while Dalbir (14) and Gurinder (10) were the other scorers. For Signals, Jaswinder (14), T.S. Thambi (13), Anwar Alam (9) and Gunaseelan (7) were the scorers.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.