The match today, which was held at give a fillip to the game in the City and watched by a sizable crowd, the visitors were up by 7-3. But in the next couple of minutes attacks and counter-attacks kept the defence of both the teams on their toes.

India's lanky Robinson followed AIA's towering Jiff Gillingam like a shadow while Ranjeet kept Rayan Liuis on a tight leash. But that, however, did not stop the visitors from further increasing the margin. And, when AIA went for the first time took, the Indian Junior were trailing by eight points (3-11).

Egged on by vociferous crowd, the Indian junior fought back and narrowed the lead.

Dlip Kumar's lay-up shot and two fast break gave breathing space to the home side, who were only three points behind the eventual winners at the break (21-24).

After the change of ends, Jeff Gillingam, who led the AIA's attack with 18 points was unstoppable by the rival defence, which enabled them to taste victory in their second encounter in two days. Though the Indian lads mounted pressure, but man-to-man marking foiled their moves.

In the dying moments, AIA's full court press further restricted the national junior side from netting baskets.

For AIA, David Bobalic and Ryan Liuis also contributed 8 and 6 points respectively.

Desh Raj with 10 points top scored for the losers while Mohit and Ranjit netted 8 and 6 points respectively.

The Indian Junior side cut a sorrow figure as they played without a proper kit an exhibition match against the American club team today.

The juniors are currently undergoing a coaching camp in preparation for the forthcoming Junior Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) meet slated to be held at Calcutta in November. ``We were short of time,'' said Mahender Singh, who is chief coach of team. He added: ``We got information only yesterday late in the evening, that we had to play a match in Chandigarh, which gave us hardly any time to arrange for a proper kit.''

R K Rao, Deputy Commissioner- Cum- Director Sports was chief guest on the occasion.