KARACHI: The Army cagers sent a message that they are a force to be reckoned with when they thrashed Navy by a massive score of 79-22 in the opening match of the National Departmental Basketball Championship at Arambagh floodlit court on Tuesday.

On a windy day, the opening Group ‘A’ fixture turned out to be totally one-sided affair as the sailors failed to match the brilliance of their opponents who scored at will.

The soldiers, who hold the national, national departmental and the inter-services titles under their belts, were on a scoring spree right from the word go as they led 33-4 at first quarter. They won the second 12-2 to seize 45-6 at half time.

The winners continued to enjoy an upper hand and enhanced their lead as they won the third quarter 19-5 and rounded off the match winning the last quarter 15-11.

With five internationals in their line-up in Naimatullah, Saeed Ahmed, Tughlak Ammar, Farhad Ahmed and M. Atif, the soldiers were superior in all departments of the game.

Though all the athletic-built soldiers contributed in their score, their tallest player, international Tughlak turned out to be the star performer. The 7’3” tall Tughlak delighted spectators by scoring 20 without any difficulty.

M. Shahbaz also finished in double figures with 10 and was ably assisted by Farhad nine, Saghir eight, Atif seven and Naimatullah, Rehman and Rashid six apiece.

Farhad and Atif hogged limelight by scoring one three-pointer apiece for the soldiers.

Adnan, Sikander and Adeel contributed four points apiece for the sailors while Babar scored one three-pointer.

The second match of the event between Railways and Wapda was in progress at the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in and around the venue for the smooth functioning of the competition which is taking place after a long time.

The Arambagh court had served as a venue for couple of international matches in the past.

Results:

Army bt Navy 79-22

Army: Tughlak Ammar 20, M. Shahbaz 10, Farhad Ahmed 9, Saghhir 8, M. Atif 7, Naimatullah 6, Rehman Raza 6, Rashid 6, Saeed Ahmed 2, Asad 2, Imran 2, M. Akram 1.

Navy: Amanul Fayyaz 4, Sikander 4, Adeel 4, Babar 3, Usman 3, Adnan 2, Nazakat 2.

Wednesday’s fixtures:

Army v Police at 6pm, Wapda v POF Wah at 7.15pm

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2017