June 30, 2008	Monday	Jamadi-us-Sani 25, 1429

ISLAMABAD, June 29: Punjab Reds defeated Punjab Blues 90-75 to lift the National Junior Basketball Championship title at the Hamidi Hall of the Pakistan Sports Complex on Sunday.

Reds earlier defeated Islamabad in the crucial match in the semi-final, played on Saturday, successfully ended the lead of the Federal area team.

The first quarter was more of a controlled game shown by both the teams, Blues and Reds, showed good defensive skills.

However, Blues played well but missed some good scoring chances at the end of the first ten-minute game when the score was 15-20. Blues struggled hard to end the deficit as Taimoor was the player who led his squad to a good fightback.

It was Taimoor’s aggressive game and continuous attack on Reds which took the score 37-38 as Punjab Blues were losing by one point.

Reds, after the break, came up with a different strategy as they controlled the game while specifically targeting a block on Taimoor’s on and off attacks which were a great help for the Blues.

However, a good scoring pace and some fast team game shown by Reds especially from Hasnain as the key man who kept the score board ticking in favor of his team. It was the third quarter of the game as a good coordination and technique helped Reds to lead the match with eight points.

Hasan Malik was the man of the final for Punjab Reds. He availed most of his scoring chances, finishing the game with 33 high points. Hasnain supported him really well with a contribution of 22 points.

Meanwhile from Blues Taimoor supported his team with 37 points.