LAHORE: Army outclassed Wapda 71-45 in the National Basketball Championship final to retain the title here at the Gymnasium Hall on Monday.

Army remained in front throughout the decider as Wapda struggled to match the skills, stamina and form of their rivals.

Right from the word go, Army started exerting pressure on their opponents in the first quarter through Rashid and Naimat who exchanged excellent passing between them to earn points for their team.

In the second quarter, Army doubled the pressure through Atif and Farhad, who skillfully scored precious points. Atif, in particular was outstanding, as he moved into every corner of the court with firm ball possession scoring valuable points.

Though Wapda were trailing 25-45 at the end of the second quarter, they demonstrated aggression in the third quarter to the cheers of boisterous crowd.

However, that could only resist Army from obtaining 12 points from that quarter as their lead remained intact.

Atif (16) and Tughlaq (15) were Army’s top scorers. For Wapda Zahid and Abid scored 13 and 12 points, respectively.

Earlier in the first semi-final, Army defeated Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) 92-55 with Atif and Tughlab bagging 19 and 16 points, respectively, for the winners. POF’s Izhar scored 12 points.

In the other semi-final, Wapda edged out Lahore Division 66-61.

Lahore Division overpowered POF 66-59 in the third-position match.

Punjab Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Jahangir Khanzada on the occasion gave away the winners trophy to Army captain.

Sports Board Punjab gave a cash prize of Rs100,000 to Army, Rs75,000 to Wapda and Rs50,000 to Lahore Division teams.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2018