KARACHI, April 2: Defending champions, Army, opened their campaign on winning note when they beat POF Wah 85-43 on the opening day of the Inter departmental basketball championship at National Sports Training and Coaching Centre (NSTCC) on Sunday.

Drawn in group ‘A’, the soldiers led 41-22 at the breather.

International Nawazish Ali top scored for Army with 18 points. He was ably assisted by Hav. Pervez Hussain (13)and Muddasar Khan (12). Ishrat H. Shah and Waheed Akhter were main contributors for the losers with 18 and 12 points.

Earlier, Habib Bank defeated PAF by barest margin of one point (70-69) after being tied 36-36 at half time.

Zahid Umer, Khalid and Adnan slammed 21, 13 and 12 points for the bankers. Ghulam Hasan (16), Imran (13) and Asfandyar (12) were the main scorers for the airmen.

Trailing 28-40 down at half time, Police overcome KESC also by 70-69 points in the group ‘B’ match marred by stoppage of play for some time.

Abbas Ali was the main architect for Policemen with 20 points to his credit. Other main scorers include Zaheer (16), Azmat (14) and Saeed Ahmed (12).

Javed was brilliant for KESC with 23 points. He was followed by Azeem 16, Talha 9 and Waseemur Rehman 8.

When the match entered third quarter Police pulled out their team by raising objection on referees-Imran Bashir and Abid for allegedly favouring their opponent’s.

When Police agreed to resume play following intervention by tournament officials, KESC walked out on the plea that time was over. Finally the play resumed with Police emerging winner.

Monday’s fixtures: 3.00pm: Army v Wapda; 4.00pm: Navy v Police; 5.00pm: Railways v HEC; 6.00pm: PAF v POF Wah; 7.00pm: Rangers v Habib Bank.