Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 22: The culmination of the District Basketball Championship turned out to be as dramatic as the final match itself as both the teams tied at 74-74. The play had to be called off due to poor light and the organizers decided to declare both teams as joint winners.
As expected, the match started at a resounding note, with both teams matching each other point by point. The Policemen looked sturdy in the first two quarters, going into the breather with five basket lead. Iqbal Singh of JKP looked unstoppable, but the STC warriors combined well in defence to thwart peripheral play. Sumit Kumar exhibited good shooting skills for policemen and supported Iqbal who was the mainstay of Police offence.
The STC warriors made several offensive mistakes despite earning possessions through a well executed defence. It was only in the third quarter that Ranbir Singh, Shubam and Amanjot started coordinating well in offence too. They were ably supported by Jaskirat and Rohan and soon STC warriors broke into slender lead in the closing minutes of third quarter.
With two minutes left in the fourth quarter and both teams tied at 74 points each, Iqbal singh, the mainstay of Police team was fouled out. It was then, that poor light stopped play and the organizers upheld the appeal of poor light. Since there was no provision of Lights in the Court, the jury decided to declare both teams as joint winners.
IGP Jammu, Danesh Rana, gave away the prizes to both the teams He had special words of praise for Iqbal Singh of J&K Police and Ranbir, Shubham and Amanjot of the STC warriors. He regretted that the match could have been decided if there was a provision of lights and also assured to explore a possibility of arranging lights for the MA Stadium Basketball arena. Dr Vikram Handa, general secretary of the Association presented a memento to Danish Rana as a token of appreciation and thanked him for encouraging the players with his presence.
Prominent among those present on the occasion included Deepak Handa, Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Prof. Dhian Singh Bhau, Sh. M K Verma, Kuldip Gupta, R K Mahajan, Ashok Singh, Kuljit Singh, Chief Sports Officer and other officers of the J&K State Sports Council and other members of the J&K Basketball Association.
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