ONGC, IOB make winning starts

Mumbai: Federation Cup champions ONGC (Uttarakhand) and runners-up IOB (Tamil Nadu) both easily won their respective men's Group-A round-robin matches of the UPL-9th Savio Cup Basketball Tournament at the Don Bosco High School courts in Matunga here today.

ONGC, which had emerged triumphant in the Fed Cup in Ahmedabad last Thursday, tamed Income Tax 67-50 after leading 40-23 at the break.

Tamil Nadu outfit IOB faced little opposition as they sidelined Maharashtra 93-69 after opening up a commanding 50- 32 half-time advantage.

In women's section, Southern Railway (Tamil Nadu) proved too strong for Kerala as they romped to an emphatic 67-35 margin of victory.

The railway side encountered some initial resistance from the Kerala girls as the scores were level at 7-all midway through the first quarter before Southern Railway went full steam ahead and raced to a 20-14 at the halfway stage.

After switching sides, Southern continued in the same vein and scored consistently to consolidate their lead before going on to close out the match rather comfortably.

This was the first loss for Kerala, which had defeated Maharashtra in the opening match yesterday.

Results:

Men's league (Group-A): IOB 93 (Harmonjyot Singh 35, A. Arvind 16) beat Maharashtra 69 (Siddhant Shinde 19, Sameer Shaikh 14). Half-time: 50-32.

ONGC 67 (Amritpal Singh 17, Anoop P 12) beat Income Tax 50 (Rishant Shah 14, Dovan Pravin 10). Hal-time 40-23

Women's league: Southern Railway 69 (Muralinath 17, Kokila 16) beat Kerala 37 (Neeru Mol 12, Pooja Mol 9). Hal-time: 37-18.