Chirec, St Pious in final

Hyderabad: Among boys, Gitanjali will take on Oakridge International for the title at the BFI-IMG inter-school basket ball league being played in the city.

Chirec Public School and St Pious will lock horns for the title in the girls' final of the BFI-IMG Reliance inter-school basketball league -organised by the Hyderabad District Basketball Association under the aegis of the Basketball Federation of India -at the YMCA in Secunderabad.

Among boys, Oakridge International School set up a title clash with Gitanjali School.

In the semifinals, Chirec got the better of Delhi Public School 52-42 while St Pious won an edgeof-the-seat thriller against Future Kids School 33-32.

In the boys' section, Gitanjali proved too good for Hyderabad Public School 50-41 and Oakridge defeated Chirec Public School 5238.

During the league phase of the tournament, Future had defeated St Pious both times the two sides had clashed and for a while in the semifinal, it seemed as though history would repeat itself. Scores were tied 8-8 at the end of the first quarter. However, slowly but surely, St Pious inched ahead and grabbed a slender two-point lead at 16-14 by the end of the second quarter.

In the third quarter, St Pious employed very tight defensive tactics and restricted their opponents to only two points while scoring eight of their own to lead 24-16 going into the final quarter.

In the fourth period of play, Future suddenly turned things around. They went on a scoring spree but were unable to prevent St Pious from scoring a few baskets. As a result, despite their 16 points, St Pious emerged victors 33-32 and book a spot in the final. Pooja Naidu top-scored for St Pious with 13 points and received solid support from Mounica, who shot 12 points.

For the losing semfinalists, Meghana (12), Haarika (10) and Pranavi (8) did their best.

In the other semifinal, Chirec underscored their title credentials with another fine show to advance to the final.

They suffered from early nerves as DPS caught them unawares. But they managed to hang on to a three-point lead, 2825, going into the last two quarters over which, they prevailed again to win the match 52-42.

Sanhita (16), Natasha (14), Sabreen (10) and Drishti (5) did well for Chirec. RESULTS (SEMIS) GIRLS Chirec Public School 52 (Sanhita 16, Natasha 14, Sabreen 10, Drishti 5) bt Delhi Public School 42 (Sreetha 15, Neha 11, Yogita 11); Half-time: 28 25.

St Pious High School 33 (Mounica 12, Pooja Naidu 13, Tejaswini 4) bt Future Kids School 32 (Meghana 12, Haarika 10, Pranavi 8); Half-time: 16-14.
BOYS Gitanjali School 50 (Bhargav 23, Omer 14, Saharsh 9) bt Hyderabad Public School 41 (Prateik 11, Sumiran 10, Atreya 8); Half-time: 21-15.

Oakridge International School 52 (Raval Reddy 23, Karthik 12, Vidhu 9) bt Chirec Public School 38 (Steven 18, Sanjay 8, Udheern 7); Half-time: 28 19.