Slam Dunk Reports

The 1st Quarter Final:
IB(2) 38 – IB(1) 22

What a game!! For the first time in this tournament, the IB(2) team were made to work for a
victory and in doing so they answered any questions about whether they could play when the
pressure was on. The first quarter saw IB(2) blow the game wide open in the first five minutes.
Nikhil Zaveri scored the IB(2) team’s first seven points before the referee called him for a
charging foul that he later admitted he got wrong. Although the IB(1) team shortened the gap the score was still 15-10 to IB(2) at the end of the 2nd quarter and had many people believing that the game was over. However, IB(1) had different plans. With Vivek leading the way and Rahul Anwala supporting him, the IB(1) team begin to get back into the game.

For the IB(2) team, it was Amarnath and Nikhil who carried much of the offensive load, as well
as a huge contribution from other members as they did all they could to keep the game close.
Despite the efforts from Jasjit Banga and Abhinav the IB(2) team had taken the lead. Going into
the third period the feeling amongst the supporters was that they were still in the driving seat
provided they could keep their strongest line-up on the court. Rahul Anwala and Vivek took the
IB(1) team on their shoulders, playing every minute of the game from here on in. With two
minutes left in the period the IB(2) lead by fifteen points, but a mini-run lead by Jasjit reduced
the deficit to 13 going into the final period. Just as it was in the first quarter, the IB(2) exploded
out of the blocks – Nikhil’s presence seemed to have lifted the team, his scoring was obvious but
more so with him in the game IB(1) were no longer able to dominate the boards. He was scoring
as if it was a walk in the park, with each shoot being more spectacular than the previous one. The
junior IB team has no answers to this and it seemed that all were waiting for the referee to blow
the final whistle.

Whatever the result may have been, one thing was sure....IB rocked!!!

The 2nd Quarter Final:
IB(1) 29 – B2(2) 16

The match between the Junior IB team and senior B2 team started with a brilliant 2-pointer from Srikant. Jasjit Banga tried very hard but he couldn’t convert the initial chances.In the process,
B2’s Shantanu was fouled but even he couldn’t convert the two chances. Srikant, Shantanu ,
Jasjit and Rahul Anwala were on the offence but were not able to pave their way through.
However, IB team did not take long to regroup and they came all guns blazing in the second
quarter. Rahul Anwala scored couple of 2-pointers with assists from the Flying Sikh, Jasjit. The
senior B2 team tried desperately hard in the final quarters. They introduced Kishley but couldnt
control the junior IB team whose confidence was growing exponentially. It ended with a score of
29-16, thanks to the efforts from Jasjit, Rahul and Vivek.

The 3rd Quarter Final:
A2(1) 7 – A1(2) 28

This was the last match of the day. It was scheduled at 1:30 a.m. but it did not have much effect
on the decible levels at the court. The A2 team was the only direct entry in the quarter finals.
They were short of match practice and this was clearly shown by their performance. Srinath was
their lone player who got little support from Kartik who combined with him to score 3 baskets,
otherwise, it was all one way traffic. Mehul was the star of the show. It seemed that it was almost
like a walk in the park for him to score against the inexperienced juniors. He was well supported
by Kshitij and Arjun at the front with Bharat and Manish playing the central role. After a quarter,
the score was 10-3 in favour of the senior A1 team. The situation worsened for the A2 team when
their lone player, Srinath, suffered a terrible injury. He twisted his ankle and any hopes of A2
revival were all but gone. After a volley of attacks led by Mehul, the senior A1 team ended the
match with a comfortable 28-7 scoreline and moved to the semis on a high.

4th Quarter Final
IB(II) vs B2(I)

It was a match which deserved better crowds, but for the early morning start only a few could
make it to support their teams. Match was evenly balanced uptill the 3rd quarter after which B1
lost the momentum with multiple time outs. For the seniors it was more of an one man army,
NIkhil Zaveri it was.Everywhere in the court you could see only one player in the red jersey n it
was him.

However for the 1st 2 quarters it was even stevens, with some intresting team coordination
making up oppurtunities but the major factor of B2 loosing was the lack of any player who rose
beyond the team. Some startegically misplaced timeouts resulted in the lose of momentum which
shifted the balance in the seniors favour and the juniors could never be in the game after that.

The 1st Semi final:
B1 (I) 54 - A1(II) 14
A clash between the tournament favourites and a relatively weak team. Nothing much was
expected of the match and so it was, a dull one sided game. B1 dominated from the word go and
even started humiliating A1 in the later quarters by playing their reserves. However even after
that A1 never came into the match and the whole of the match time for A1 was spent as a rubber
chase seeeing the tall B1 players putting one after the another into the basket.


The Final:
B1(1) 35 – IB(2) 22
After a long wait, here it was. The much awaited final of the Slam Dunk was played between the
junior B1 team and Senior IB team. The air became pregnant with expectations as soon as IB
won the second semi final as both the teams were considered two of the strongest contenders for
the title. On the back of superior shooting and dominant interior defence, the B1 side bounced
back from initial hiccups to arrest a 13 point win over their senior counterparts. IB’s pressing
defence threatened to cause a come-from-behind win but with their perimeter shooters having an
off day, could not generate enough offence to make a serious run.
B2’s Point guard Anshuman Sinha took control when it mattered most, helping Abhishek
Choudhary open the scoring for his team. Soon after, the captain of the IB team, Nikhil, levelled
with a 2-pointer. That was it. It was the only time that the two teams were level on score. B1
never looked back after that and were in the lead all through the game. IB started the match
much like they finished last night, but the game quickly settled into a tight contest as expected by
the fans. Early offence from Abhishek Choudhary and Apoorva gave the edge to the B1 team in a
low-scoring first quarter. The IB team bounced back after the time-out. However, B1 extended
their lead to ten points in the second quarter. Abhishek Choudhary and Anshuman Sinha
provided the attacking spark for B1.
The IB team came out firing in the third quarter with Amarnath finding form and matching steps
with Nikhil. Behind by 13 points, the IB team went to their their fullcourt press which started to
produce some B1 turnovers when Arnab went to the bench.He was substituted by Anuj Aggarwal
who made a perfect run to deceive the IB’s defence and scored a spectacular 3-pointer, pretty
much like he did in the quarter finals. The other substitute, Ameya Sohoni, was sparingly used
and was given a more defensive role.
The B1 team took a 27-15 lead into the final change after B1’s Jose blocked a last second shot
from Nikhil – one of nine B1 blocks for the match.
The B1 team then went in for the kill in the final term, two Anshuman and Jose two pointers
setting up a seemingly match-winning 14-point lead.Nikhil and his troops tried their level best
but Arnab sank two from a free throw down the stretch to ensure the win.
All in all, it was a highly competitive match, unlike the other matches which the two sides played
against the other teams, where the games were wrapped up in the first two quarters. More
importantly, there wasn’t even a single foul play and the tournament ended on a high!!