KARACHI, April 10 The final of the Inter-university basketball championship (final round) will be an all-Karachi affair perhaps for the first time, as hosts NED and last year's runners up Karachi University won their semi-finals in contrasting styles on Friday.

Playing on their own court, the NED was leading 19-12 against defending champions University of Punjab, Lahore, in the third quarter when the latter forfeit the match allegedly accusing the referees Sultan Habib and Asif Mahmood for playing partisan role.

The holders have walked off the field earlier too in the second quarter on the same ground but resumed the play.

The first pre-final turned out to be low scoring as both teams opted for defensive play with NED leading the first quarter 10-4 and the visitors winning the second 7-6 to trail 11-16 at half time.

With NED 19-12 up in the match some four minutes into third quarter the visitors left the field. The NED followed pursuit on the plea that University of Punjab was interrupting and slowing their (NED) tempo. NED, however, returned to the field after three minutes only to see their opponents conceding the battle.

A late blitz in the last quarter enabled Karachi University to turn the tables on University of Central Punjab, Lahore, 75-71 to justify their billing.

The KU trailed 7-13 in the first quarter and 29-31 at half time. Again the local outfit was lagging behind 44-51 at the end of third quarter. However, two three-pointers by Haroon and one by Shabbar steered KU to surge ahead mustering 31 against 20 by their rivals in the final quarter.

The KU took full advantage after opponent's key shooter Muzammil Mahmood (23) was sent out for five fouls together with Mohammad Haris (5). Waqas Nazar (22), Kashif Hadi (11) and Arshad Gill (10) were the other scorers.

Agha M. Ibrahim (20), Hammad Hussain (16), M. Shabbar (13), Asad Iqbal (10) and Haroon Khan (8) were the main scorers for KU.

The final between NED and Karachi University will be played on Saturday at 2.00pm. Earlier, the University of Punjab and University of Central Punjab will take on each other for 3rd-4th position playoff at 11.00am.