KARACHI: District West conjured up third straight victory swept aside Mirpurkhas 54-24 to emerge group “B” champions in the National Bank of Pakistan Cup basketball tournament at the Arambagh floodlit court on Monday.

The winners led 27-17 at half time.

The victory revolves around Talha Amjad and Asad who scooped 19 and 17 points respectively. M. Haris and Aijaz scored six points apiece for the losers.

Despite defeat, first in three games, Mirpurkhas’s finished runners up in the group behind district West and qualified for the last four.

In the group “A” match, district South routed Quetta 59-39 after enjoying 29-16 lead at half time.

Zain-ul-Abedin scored 14 points and was followed by Fazeel eight. For Quetta, Tabish scored 15 but went in vain. He was assisted by Danish who contributed six.

Meanwhile, in the matches played on Sunday, Hyderabad became the first team to made exit by losing second consecutive match.

Drawn in group “B”, Hyderabad went down to district West 38-73 to complete their engagements. In an earlier match, they had lost to Mirpurkhas after winning opener against district Central.

Talha Amjad, Ali and Shabbar displayed their scoring prowess. Talha and Ali shared 42 points amongst themselves while Shabbar finished with 20.

Ali Raza fought bravely and contributed 19. He was supported by Naveed with eight.

Contrary to Hyderabad, Mirpurkhas seized a berth in the last-four from the same group registering second straight victory as they send district Central packing 54-26 in an earlier match.

M. Ehsan and M. Haris finished in double figures with a score of 16 and 10 respectively while Sameer contributed 16 for the losers.

In the third match, district East conjured up second successive victory when they outplayed Quetta 54-14.

Ammar, Mubashir and Shahmir made their mark scoring 11, 10 and eight points respectively for the winners.

This was first loss of Quetta in the event.

Published in Dawn December 7th, 2016