St Joseph's, Don Bosco enter final

St Joseph's players (in blue) launch an attack against Vibgyor at Azad Maidan. Pic/Atul Kamble

In a repeat of last year, defending champions Don Bosco (Matunga) and runners-up St Joseph's (Wadala) will battle for top honours in the boys' under-16 title-deciding match of the Mumbai Schools Sports Association-organised inter-school basketball tournament played at the MSSA's basketball courts at Azad Maidan.

Yesterday, in the first semi-final, Don Bosco rallied to overcome Jamnabai Narsee International School 39-27 after trailing 15-16 at the interval. Later, St Joseph's, comprising of a taller bunch of players, made good use of their height to cruise to a 50-30 win over an erratic Vibgyor High (Goregaon) after enjoying a 26-11 first-half advantage.

Jamnabai began promisingly and dominated the first two quarters before Don Bosco tightened up their game and showed better accuracy with their shooting and turned things around in the next two quarters, especially the fourth in which they scored 13 points as against just two by the Vile Parle lads.

Aryan Chopda (13 points), Aarav Jaggi (seven points) and Anurag Pandey (six points) were responsible in leading Don Bosco to victory. Udipt Bakshi scored seven points for Jamnabai.

In contrast, the St Joseph's lads were much more consistent with their shooting and came out trumps rather convincingly. Vibgyor did well to make inroads towards the rival board but were unable to find the hoop and that proved to be their undoing.

Shoham Chavan and Aman Shaikh with 16 and 11 points respectively powered St Joseph's to victory, while Dev Premi was the only Vibgyor player to successfully find the hoop and scored 20 points.

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