U-13 district championship: St Mary’s win the rebounders vs dribblers contest

BNS showed ball control can prove decisive, that was until St Mary’s brought on its height advantage

The boys from St Mary’s High School completed a four point swing over Bharati Nivas Society (BNS) Club to cruise into quarter-finals at the 9th Late Rajabhau Chitale Memorial under-13 district championship played at the Deccan Gymkhana basketball courts on Tuesday. St Mary’s made use of the height advantage in their ranks to overpower the diminutive BNS players and win the game 12-9.

St Mary’s (white) won its match narrowly over BNS on Tuesday at the under-13 district championship being played at Deccan Gymkhana courts. (RAHUL RAUT/HT PHOTO)

The disparity in the cumulative heights of the two sides was apparent before the jump ball and many wondered whether the BNS dribblers would be able to match up against their taller and arguably more physical counterparts from Mary’s. And to everyone’s amusement, that’s precisely what they did, at least for the first half of the contest.

Taking advantage of their low centre of gravity, the BNS boys played the game at an extremely high tempo, giving Santosh Survase in the St Mary’s dugout some food for thought. At one stage, BNS held a four-point cushion and looked like they were cruising to the finish line and causing an upset over one of the tournament favourites.

With the score 9-7 in favour of BNS at half-time, Survase in the St Mary’s dugout knew that he had to make a few tactical tweaks in order to swing the balance of the game in favour of his players. Thus, he decided to bring in two taller players in Shlok Patil and Viraj Ganjave and asked the other players to attempt more three point efforts with Patil and Ganjave capitalising on the rebounds and scoring vital second chance points.

Even the St Mary’s rear guard tightened up in the third and fourth quarters of the contest as they did not concede a single point throughout the second half and managed to score five of their own over the two quarters to cruise to a 12-9 comeback victory.

Player of the match

Shlok Patil, point guard, St Mary’s High School

The 12-year-old started the match as a point guard, but moved into the centre position midway through the third quarter. The tactical tweak saw him more involved in the game as he managed to score three of his five points from that position. His height advantage saw him win a number of key offensive rebounds towards the business end of the contest which in turn saw St Mary’s win by three points.

Results

Girls: Pre-quarter finals

Millennium School 22 (Aanya Bhave 10) beat Ideal 11 ( Nirmayee Kshirsagar 4), half-time 8-4

Deccan Gymkhana 40 (Akshaya Patil 10) beat All Star 8 (Shivli Soni 4), half-time 24-4

Vibgyor (Balewadi) 15 (Novena Noel 6) beat Angles 2, half-time 6- 2

Chondhe Patil 36 (Sara Chopade 14 ) beat Super Kids 19 (Samikasha Patil 6), half-time 18-7

Boys: Pre-quarter finals

St Mary’s 12 (Shlok Patil 5) beat BNS 9 (Arya Limaye 3), half-time 7 - 9

ISST 18 (Kapil Hare 6 ) beat All Star 8 (Ojas Saxena 6), half-time 14 - 2

Loyola 33 ( Arnav Angarkar 12) beat Sharp Shooters 19 (Atharva Surke 8), half-time 15 - 7

Sanjay Sawant Sports Club 35 (Krish Kumar 12 ) beat Vibgyor (Balewadi) (Shivam Manchanda 12 ), half-time 28 - 8