ONGC beat Indian Overseas Bank, retain Savio Cup title

Defending champions Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Dehradun, trounced arch rivals Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), Chennai 63-53 to lift the 10th Savio Cup All-India Basketball Tournament here today.

International Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, who scored 17 points, once again played the lead role, while seasoned Anoop M chipped in with 10 points for ONGC in the men's final of the Rs 5 lakh prize fund event held at Don Bosco School court in Matunga.

For IOB, Prasanna Venkatesh scored 11 points while Amjyot Singh and Mihir Pandey, contributed 10 points each.

Star-studded ONGC put up a better display as compared to their southern rivals and held an edge in the proceedings.

On the other hand, IOB lacked coordination and consistency and as a result they were not able to match their superior opponents. The Chennai cagers also made far too many errors, in both attack and defence, and wasted easy lay-ups, which proved to be their undoing.

The oilmen exploited the situation and capitalised on the openings to find the hoop at regular intervals to establish a 19-5 lead by the end of the first quarter.

The hoopsters from Dehradun continued to control the reins in the second and finished the first half with a healthy 31-16 advantage, which they maintained till the end.

After play resumed IOB showed an improvement in their game, but it was not good enough to put pressure on the ONGC players.