Sports
Times maintain winning streak to upset South Siders
Times International College continued to remain unbeaten in the Nepal Basketball League overturning a 12-point deficit to beat South Siders Basketball Club 77-65 on Tuesday.Sports Bureau
Times International College continued to remain unbeaten in the Nepal Basketball League overturning a 12-point deficit to beat South Siders Basketball Club 77-65 on Tuesday.
Leading Times to their seven consecutive victory, man-of-the-match Mabindra Chhetri scored 18 points and took five rebounds, while another youngster Manish KC netted nine points in a crucial fourth quarter where the game turned around. After trailing Siders in the first two quarters, Times tied the game through a two-pointer from Ashish Singh at 46-46 with 3:11 remaining in the third. Three pointers from Chhetri, Bijay Burja and skipper Sadhish Pradhan kept Times ahead in the game before a two-pointer from Joshua Leslie Sherchand handed them a two-point lead heading into the final quarter.
KC did most of the scoring in the opening period of the fourth quarter where Siders took more than five minutes to score. They scored
their first three points during the period through free throws with Minesh Shakya converting all of them.
Times dominated the entire fourth quarter and netted 20 points with South Siders scoring just 10.
Pradhan top scored in the game with 23 points that included three three-pointers. He also had six assists. KC also chipped in a crucial 16, while Sherchand took 13 rebounds. Times were without their tall centre Bikram Joshi due to one-match disciplinary suspension. Shakya and Rabin Gautam scored 20 points each for South Siders who have lost their six out of seven games.
In the first match, Nepal Police Club recovered from their stunning 86-88 defeat at the hands of Kirtipur Basketball Team to crush Royal Basketball Club 109-68. It was the highest team score in the league which helped NPC register their third victory in six matches and are now tied on nine points in third place with Golden Gate International College.
Royal, meanwhile, have lost three consecutive matches after winning their first two. Shahinur Rahman Shojib inspired Police to victory with 21 points and 14 rebounds, while his compatriot Mohammad Aakash netted 16 points. Bikash Gurung also chipped in 19 points.
NPC began the day with a nine-point (24-15) lead in the first quarter and stretched it to 16 taking the second quarter 27-20. Royal led the third quarter 28-26 to reduce the deficit to 14 points but went clueless in the final period when NPC scored a massive 32 points and stopping their opponents on just five. Nikesh Rakhal Magar scored 19 points for Royal and Rupak Magar had 18.