The Secunderabad women produced that effort, but were unfortunate to lose the deciding league match of the Ishaque Ansari All-India basketball tournament and the Shariatullah Khan Memorial Trophy at Nagpada here today.South-Central Railway were done in by some disputable umpiring, always contentious in a close match, and lost 63-65.

Favourites Western Railway, Ajmer, won the Ishaque Ansari Memorial Trophy for men with ease, whipping South-Central Railway, Secunderabad 90-61. The taller men from Secunderabad looked lost in offence, settling for attempts from outside instead of playing to their strength, three pivots.

In contrast to their men, the South-Central women did not have the inches. But they made up with some excellent rolling, screens and shooting. In the first half, their key D Anandhi was marked excellently by Jiji Jose. But S Sreeja came up withsome inspired shooting, scoring all her 16 points in the half, to inspire a 14-0 run, which saw South-Central recover from 12-19 to lead 26-19. Sreeja was well assisted by UP Laiji, who played on despite twisting her ankle early in the first half.

In defence, MA Sisely was outstanding. She had the measure of Shinymol Jacob, and helped out in a double team on the dangerous Jeo Jose. Jeo was definitely a thorn in their flesh. In succession, she forced the two tallest South-Central players marking her, PV Prameela and Yamuna Philip, out with five fouls. The two had baulked her in the first half. Enjoying a free run, Jeo had 14 second half points, including the winning basket from the pivot with 28 seconds left.

Former international Abbas Moontasir consoled the South-Central coach by saying it was one of the poorest officiating he had seen in a long time. The losers were deprived of the runner-up title too, due to their surprise loss to Northern Railway. Western Railway, due to a better scoring difference,were declared runner-up.

The men's final was tame in contrast. Western Railway, lacking in height (their tall recruits Ranjit Singh and Robinson are doing duty for India in the Asian Juniors at Calcutta), came up with a good all-round performance. Despite being effectively blocked by D Babu, veteran international Ram Kumar managed 20 points. Add to that the contributions of Rudolf Brown and Surjit Singh from the periphery. The losers contributed heavily with some forgettable offence, and sorely missed a good ball-handler.

Results

Men's league final: Western Railway, Ajmer 90 (Rudolf Brown 22, Ram Kumar 20, Arjun Singh 16, Ashok Kumar 14, Surjit Singh 13) bt South-Central, Secunderabad 61 (V Rajesh 22, D Babu 10, G Ravi Kumar 17) HT 44-28.

Women's league final: Central Railway, Mumbai 65 (Jeo Jose 21, Jiji Jose 16, AG Bridgit 15) bt South-Central, Secunderabad 63 (D Anandhi 14, UP Laiji 14, S Sreeja 16, MA Sisely 11) HT 34-28.