KARACHI, April 9 University of Central Punjab, Lahore, was through to the last four without playing a match in the Inter-university basketball championship (final round) at the NED University gymnasium on Thursday.

They were declared winners for second successive time in as many days after Balochistan University of ITM Quetta failed to provide necessary documents of some of their players and scratched. Earlier, they had earned full points in similar manner when Bannu University failed to satisfy the scrutiny committee of the event pertaining to the players' documents on Wednesday.

In an earlier match, Rehman Butt's heroic performance failed to save Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) from tasting 61-73 defeat at the hands of Karachi University. Rehman emerged as an outstanding shooter accumulating half of the team's total (31) as his side trail 15-24 at half time.

Agha M. Ibrahim (22), Haroon (16), Adnan Ali (13) and Asad Iqbal (12) stole the limelight for KU which got a first round bye. The KU now faces University of Central Punjab in the second semi-final on Friday at 11.30am.In another match, defending champions University of Punjab, Lahore, also sailed into the pre-final inflicting 89-64 defeat on Sargodha University.

M. Naveed and Arsalan Mahmood turned out to be main scorers for winners equally sharing a score of 38. They were ably supported by Raheel Hamza (11) and Sameer Zahid (9). Gul Hasan (18), M. Zareef and Hasan Javed 12 apiece, Adnan Ahmed and Sheron John eight apiece, contributed for losers.

The University of Punjab is drawn to meet hosts NED University who in another encounter got the better of Peshawar University 46-34.

The NED mustered enough points in the first and fourth quarters 16-5 and 16-7 respectively which helped them win as their players became complacent losing the second and third quarters 8-12 and 6-10. Shehryar Zahoor top scored for local outfit with 11 while Habibullah and Ali Hafeez scored eight apiece. Mohibullah and M. Rehman contributed 12 and 10 for losers.

Friday's fixtures

Semi-finals NED University v University of Punjab at 10.00am; Karachi University v University of Central Punjab at 11.30pm.