KARACHI: Army finished on top of pool A while inflicting a commendable 64-35 victory over Navy in their last league match of the fifth Kashmir Cup Basketball Championship at the KPT Sports Complex wooden court on Thursday.

Having beaten Balochistan, Fata and Sindh Greens in the previous games, the soldiers were on song as they shrugged off the weak opposition to stay unbeaten.

The trio of Khalid Mahmood, Javed Iqbal and Asim Ali bulldozed sailors with their brisk scoring as they led 40-19 at half time. Khalid finished with 19 and was equally supported by Javed 18 and Asim 17. Ammanual Fayyaz and Nazakat were the only two players of the losing outfit to finish in doubles figures with 12 and 10 respectively.

In an earlier match, Khyber Pakhtunkwa conjured up their first victory outplaying Islamabad 57-41 in group B encounter. After losing first two games to Sindh Reds and Punjab, the winners overcome first two quarters slackness to emerge victorious by a better margin after leading 31-28 lead at half time.

Saqib and Waleed were instrumental in the triumph scoring 18 and 13 respectively while Farhan and Khawaja Saud contributed 14 and eight respectively for losers. It was Islamabad’s third straight defeat as they have lost to Punjab and Police earlier.

In the third match of the day, Rashid’s brilliant 24 failed to save Balochistan from suffering 61-68 defeat at the hands of Sindh Greens. The triumph helped winners to stay in contention for a place in the last four. The winners led 40-36 at half time.

Ali Chanzeb scored an efficient 23 followed by Talha Amjad Ali 15 and Iraj Rasool eight. Apart from Rashid’s heroics, Ahmed Nawaz scored 14.

Meanwhile, Wapda has reached here on Thursday noon after the event has reached the half way mark. At the time of filing this report, they were up against Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in their group match. “They have been drawn in group B and will comply with rules and regulations by playing remaining four games,” Pakistan Basketball Federation (PBF) secretary Khalid Bashir told Dawn in response to a query.

Navy, meanwhile, outplayed Fata 67-47 in the fourth and last match played on Wednesday evening after enjoying 32-15 lead at the breather.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2015

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