MSSA: Riya Pathare rises and shines!

Riya Pathare of Hiranandani Foundation during the MSSA U-16 basketball quarter-final at Azad Maidan yesterday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Hiranandani Foundation (Powai) put up a collective effort and sailed past Navy Children School (Colaba) with a 28-16 win in a girls U-16 quarter-final of the MSSA inter-school basketball tournament at Azad Maidan on Tuesday.

The Hiranandani girls, who were better organised and quick on the counter, raced to a 7-2 lead in the first quarter.

Navy girls rally

However, they were a bit sluggish in the second. The Navy girls took advantage of this and bridged the gap to 8-9 at the end of the first half. On resumption, the Powai side regained their form and dominated the last two quarters to troop out worthy winners.

Hiranandani were well-served by Riya Pathare, who finished as the leading scorer with eight points. All-rounder Ananya Jain, scored three successive baskets in the fourth quarter while Mrigamka Sharma chipped in with six points each and Teesta Mand contributed a useful five points to complete the victory. For Navy Children, Janvi Yadav and Antara Pandey scored six points each.

Win for St Anthony's

Earlier, in the first match of the day, St Anthony's (Chembur) comfortably beat Dhirubhai Ambani School (BKC) 31-12 to storm into the semi-finals. Gauri Raut led the way for St Anthony with eight points while teammate Samiksha Kambli scored five and Oshin Dukhande, Joann Jose and Kasturi Rajarampatil all added four points each. For Dhirubhai Ambani, Tiara Gupta waged a lone battle and single-handedly scored all the 12 points.

Later, Bombay Scottish (Mahim) beat Fatima High School (Vidyavihar) 27-21 in the third quarter-final. In the fourth match of the day, Vibgyor High (Goregaon) outplayed Divine Child (Andheri) 40-23.

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