Hyderabad Sky pip Pune Peshwas

The second and final leg of the United Basketball Alliance (UBA) Pro Basketball League 2016, underway at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium saw home team Hyderabad Sky beat Pune Peshwas in a double OT thriller on Thursday. With both teams sporting strong backcourts, it was a battle of the guards in today’s game.

In the first quarter, international guard Narender Grewal was aggressive for the Peshwas looking for his shot driving to the basket. For Hyderabad, international guard Joginder Singh and Sky’s Nigerian centre Edwin Oneh combined well to provide a one-two scoring punch for their team.

Down by six points entering the second quarter, Joginder went into another gear finding his touch from long range. Veteran forward Nihal Yadav provided offense off the bench. Sky ended up outscoring the Peshwas 30 to 14 in the second quarter and at halftime, the scores were 48-38 with Hyderabad up.

Pune Peshwas came out assertive in the third quarter. Narender powered his way to the basket on multiple occasions to either finish in the paint or get to the freethrow line and Pune managed to regain the lead. Towards the end, with a minute left to go and Pune up by four points, Hyderabad’s Vijay Kumar hit a clutch transition bucket to cut Pune’s lead down to two. Joginder made two out of the three free throws to tie the game at 79.

Thrilling OT
In the first OT, both teams were exchanging buckets for the first four minutes. The final possessions produced nothing for both teams, leading to a second overtime, which belonged to Mahesh Padmanabhan (28 points), who went on a scoring tear, starting with a runner in the lane, followed by two huge triples. Sky managed to close out the thrilling game with a 101-97 finish to take their first game in front of their home crowd this season. Padmanabhan from Sky was deservedly awarded the man of the match.