Defending champion Army gets first win Basketball C’ship
Bureau Report

LAHORE—Defending champion, Pakistan Army notched up first victory in the 27th National basketball championship thrashing lowly rated AJK 164-49 here at Railways stadium courts.
In other matches KESC routed Balochistan 79-33, Railways outplayed Sindh 73-21,Police outstroked Punjab Blue 69-41 and Pak Rangers beat FATA 69-30.
The matches of the championship were postponed for three days following country wide mourning after the death of former prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.According to the revised draws each team will be playing two matches to make up for the break.The final will be played on January 5. Army led first half 30-20 against AJK after taking control right from the start. Army teased AJK with constant aggression to put the ball in basket time and again and AJK found it hard to salvage their pride in front of a good gathering.
Army’s main point winners were Pervez and Mudassar who displayed high class game scoring (30) and (28) points. Mir Alam made (24) and Khalid added (23) while Ilyas shared (21) points. AJK’s lone scorer was Shahbaz who made (20) points.
KESC gave less chance for fetching points to little known Balochistan before being 26-12 at interval. KSEC mainly concentrated on quick moves to place the ball in the cage and their efforts were supplemented by Hamad (25) and Rziwan (10), the two top scorers.Balochistan got some relief through Azam (22) and Babar (11). Railways gained 26-13 lead at break against Sindh. Railways exhibited fast paced attacking in the remaining part of the match to get one point after another as Sindh failed to stop the flow of their skilful game. Railways most outstanding players were Samson (14), Allah Bux (12) and Abdul Rehman (10) and Faran Aziz (9) and Shabbir (8) dominated from Sindh.
Police were 24-7 up against Punjab Blue as the home team failed to put up a brave show. Police made their way to victory mainly due to some hard working efforts from Azmat (22),Zaheer (18) and Zahid (12). Ali Raza (12),Raja Ehsan (11) and Hassan (9) helped Punjab. Rangers took firm 59-29 lead at half time against FATA which lacked high level of technique and speed. Ahmed shared lions share in teams success by adding Ahmer (22) and Ghulam Mustafa (11) and Niammat (8) impressed from FATA.