Dubai: The Blue Rhine Eagles and Pond Parkers registered wins on the opening day of the Berry Hills 10th Indian Basketball League last week.
The Blue Rhine Eagles scored a convincing 77-49 win over Warriors, Dubai, while Pond Parkers edged out Cromwell UK City Stars 57-56.
Trailing 17-29 at the end of the first period, City Stars came back strongly in the third quarter to reduce the deficit to five points at 37-42. City Stars then scored 19 against 15 points in the last quarter.
Sarhan hit a triple for City Stars with eight seconds remaining, but Parkers held on in the dying seconds to clinch victory.
Afsal Khaddar paved the way for the winners with 23 points, while Sharath Kurian added 13 points. Imran Thayyil had 16 points and Sarhan 15 for the City Stars.
In the first match, the scores were close early on with Warriors leading 13-11 and then trailing 25-27 in the second period. But the third quarter was disastrous for them as the Blue Rhine Eagles outscored them 26-6, and the Eagles also took the final quarter 24-18.
Abhimanyu Dabbas top scored for the winners with 22 points, while the Warriors were well served by Faseeh Yousuf’s 16 points and Karun Mehra’s 11.
Earlier, Indian Basketball Society patron Dr. Sunny Kurian inaugurated the 40-day tournament that has attracted a total of 36 teams in men’s, women’s, under-19 boys and under-13 boys and girls categories.
