Dubai: The Falcons relied on a second extra period to fly past Dubai Heats 94-92 in an exciting match of the Berry Hills Indian Basketball League 2017 earlier this week.
The Falcons led by two points in the first quarter 19-17 and extended this to eleven points at half-time while leading 43-32. The Heats came back dominating the third quarter after outscoring their opponents 22-8 to lead by three points at 54-51.
The final quarter witnessed a neck-and-neck battle as the teams trooped off tied 69-69 at the full-time hooter. Both teams were tied 16-16 at the end of the first period of extra-time forcing a second extra period.
The highpoint, however, was the number of personal fouls — 35 by the Heats and 44 by the Falcons that in fact led to the Falcons playing with four players in the dying moments of the game. And yet, the Falcons managed to push through with Avin top-scoring with 35 points, including the winning basket. Shebin came in handy with 29 points, while Sankar top-scored with 19 points assisted by Sushil and Sathya with 16 points each.
In another match, the Pond Parkers shocked Hustlers 83-70 in Pool A. The winners trailed by two points (18-20) in the first quarter, but did well to gain the upper hand at 38-33 by half-time. The Hustlers went clear 55-53 in the third quarter, while the Pond Parkers reorganised in the fourth period to outscore their opponents 30-15 to run away with the match. Kishore Ramu top-scored with 29 points, and was ably assisted by Cyril Miranda’s 18 points, while Saif Islam chipped in with 21 points for the losing cause.
Other Results
Imperial Knights 76 (Siddarth Singh 31) bt Patriots 48 (Jaison 10); Beatrice Sports Club 72 (Hanan Nisar 13, Ishaan Shoukath 10, Aaron Ferns 10) bt Dubai Heats Juniors 60 (Akshay Suresh 19; Aditya Prabhu 16).
Women’s Division: Techno Star Eagles 59 (Neethu Maria Abraham 18; Dhanya 17; Avelyn Maria Jean 13) bt Delhi Private School, Dubai 23 (Agnes Davis 12).
