KARACHI: Defending champions Army annihilated Wapda 89-35 in the final to retain their title in the National Departmental Basketball Championship at the Arambagh floodlit court on Saturday.

The soldiers superiority were never in doubt since the start of the event and they did it in style winning all their four matches including the title clash of the event that was participated by six outfits.

The eventual champions had carved out 89-36 victory over the POF Wah and the final score shows a minor difference.

Besides the glittering trophy, two cagers also did Army proud by winning individual honours. M. Atif was bestowed with the Best Player of the Tournament award while their tallest player Tughlak Ammar earned Man of the Final prize.

M. Usman of the POF Wah won the Top Scorer award. He finished with an individual tally of 121 in the event.

The soldiers enjoyed complete edge over their opponents and led 59-19 at half time having won the first quarter 29-9 and second 30-10.

But contrary to the first two quarters, the soldiers become a bit slow which is quite evident from their scores of the last two quarters – 18-11, 12-5.

In the absence of the last runners-up PAF, Wapda improved their rank by one step. The latter had ended up third in the last event.

Prolific scorers Tughlak Ammar (23) and M. Atif (21) turned out to be outsnding for winners. They were supported by Rashid Minhas (14), Farhad Ahmed (12) and Naimatullah (11).

Salman was the only Wapda player who finished in double digit with 11.

Earlier, POF Wah chalked up 94-71 victory over Navy to seize third position.

Former Director General Rangers Sindh retired Lt Gen Javed Zia, who graced the final, gave away the prizes.

Also present on the occasion were Pakistan Basketball Federation (PBF) secretary Khalid Bashir, associate secretary PBF Abdul Nasir, Karachi Basketball Association (KBA) chairman Amjad Ali, KBA president Ghulam Mohammad, former international S.M. Tanveer, KPT’s general manager sports retired Col Syed Baseer Alam, Khalid Shamsi and Ghulam Haqqani.

Final results:

Army bt Wapda 89-35

Army: Tughlak Ammar 23, M. Atif 21, Rashid Minhas 14, Farhad Ahmed 12, Naimatullah 11, M. Akram 6, Asad Abbas 2.

Wapda: Salman 11, Aamir Farooq 7, Aalejah 5, Shiraz 4,

Yaseen Khan 3, Falak Farid 3, Muzammil 2.

Published in Dawn, December 10th, 2017