Till midway through the first half, NNH and Fr. Agnel were neck and neck. But pressure on Shaikh helped Fr. Agnel launch a 14-0 run and wrest the initiative. Agnel surged ahead from 14-all to 28-14. Maulik Vacchani's man-to-man marking on Shaikh helped them force at least four turnovers. In addition they had two offensive rebounds converted. That quelled NNH's fight early in the match. With the win, Agnel qualified for the semi-final league.

Agnel were the better and taller of the two teams on court. They had five players who could contribute in good measure. In Maulik and Binoy KB, they had two power forwards which helped them make use of the fast breaks. In rebounding they had Dheeraj and Anup Nair to control the boardswell.

On court, Dheeraj and Ishtiaque Khan had a running battle which nearly threatened to degenerate into an ugly fight. While driving to the basket, Ishtiaque elbowed Dheeraj and when referee D Sekhar pulled him up for a deliberate foul, NNH coach Rashid Shaikh was not one bit pleased.

He expressed his displeasure by substituting the four main players on court. Mercifully, better sense prevailed and the players were brought back into play.

RESULTS

Boys: Bombay YMCA 70 (SK Sharik 22, Rizwan Siddique 19) bt Indian Gymkhana 49 (Rohan Kumar 18, Sachin Rao 10, Tejas Arya 10); Fr. Agnel 61 (Binoy KB 23, Maulik Vacchani 14) bt NNH 47 (Kasif Shaikh 19, F Khan 14).

Girls: Fatima 48 (Anita Krishnan 19, Ami Momaya 12, Quintina Noronha 9, Flavia D'Souza 8) bt Fr. Agnel 12 (Anjali Yadav 6).