Chennai Slam crowned champs

Hyderabad: Chennai Slam won the inaugural UBA Indian Pro Basketball league at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium on Thursday. In a lopsided championship clash, they routed Pune Peshwas 81-49 to emerge as the deserving winners.

Chennai Slam was richer by Rs seven lakh along with their gold medals while losing the finalist had to settle for silver medals and Rs three lakh in prize-money. In a way, it was sweet revenge for Chennai as they had their earlier showdown with each other in the league stage.

Contrary to expectations of a thriller, Pune was sloppy from the first quarter with their prominent players being a shadow of their normal talent. Their scoring came in patches with centre P Vijay putting up the initial shots in the paint for a semblance of a fight-back.

The Chennai players, on the other hand, showed that they belonged on the big stage. Sticking with the starting lineup for the entire first half, Chennai scored with ease on the back of quality ball movement.

Transition buckets came in bunches as Chennai clamped down on the defensive end with strong man-to-man defense. Their star player, Agu delighted the crowd with beautiful athletic drives to the basket and some deep threes. He had another all-round game with 22 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists and 5 steals.

The Peshwas lacked adequate control over the ball with their guards repeatedly turning the ball over once they entered their offensive half. Their go-to guard Ajinkya Mane and captain Arjun Mehta were off colour.

By halftime, Chennai were up by 14 points. The Peshwas managed only nine points in the third quarter and by that time, it felt like there was no gas left in their tank. Chennai forward Ramkumar and swingman Carmel Joseph kept plugging away on the offensive end, getting easy transition buckets and sinking open jumpers.

Pune tried mixing up their lineup but nothing seemed to work as they just could not stop the Chennai onslaught. In the end, Chennai won by a whopping 32-point margin.

Later, Later, Bollywood actor Vidyut Jamwal gave away the prizes at an glittering ceremony. Also present were senior UBA executives Tommy Fisher, Richard Whelan, Sunday Zeller, Tausif Sheikh and Deepesh Solanki.

Results-Final: Chennai Slam 81 (Chukwunanu Agu 22, Bernette Carmel Joseph 21, Ramkumar 19) bt Pune Peshwas 49 (Edvin Irvin 12, Ajinkya Mehta 8)

Two from Hyd in UBA All-Star team

Hyderabad: In what comes as a major boost to basketball players from Hyderabad, two from the city, Nihal Yadav and Sujith Reddy, were selected in All Star team of the inaugural UBA Indian Pro Basketball league at Gachibowli Indoor Stadium here on Thursday. They represented Hyderabad Sky in the championship. Deepesh Solanki, UBA CEO, announced the names of the 20 players, who will be rewarded with a year’s professional playing contracts with each getting $5,000.

All Star squad: TJ Sahi and Karan Joshua (Bengaluru Beast); Chukwunanu Agu, Ramkumar and Bernette Carmel Joseph (Chennai Slam); Birender Singh, Vikas Kumar and Rakesh Sangwan (Haryana Gold); Sartaj Sandhu and Ravi Bhardwaj (Punjab Steelers); Karan Pal Singh (Mumbai Challengers); P Vijay, Ajinkya Mehta and Ajinkya Mane (Pune Peshwas); Yudhvir Dahiya, Arsh Deep Saini and Aaditya Raj (Delhi Capitals); Nihal Yadav, Sujith Reddy(Hyderabad Sky).