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ShareMumbai: Services brushed aside ONGC 76-51 to make the final of the fifth Savio Cup at Don Bosco, Matunga, on Saturday. However, the defeat didn't prove costly for ONGC as they entered the title round following another contenders IOB's loss to Shooting for Success (SFS) by an identical margin.
The dress rehearsal for the final turned out to be a lukewarm affair as both the men's sides decided to rest their key players for Sunday's summit clash. Services kicked off the proceedings in brisk pace. Crowd favourite Shambaji Kadam showed off some great footwork and fancy moves to keep his side ahead and got the crowd at their feet.
Services gelled well as a unit with a tight defence that contained the ONGC men brilliantly, great passing and converting on most of the occasions. ONGC, on the other hand, seemed out of sorts and missed a lot of baskets.
After the match, ONGC captain Murli Krishna said, "Our strategy was to relax so that we will be fresh for the final tomorrow. We will be focusing on our defense as it was very loose today."
In the other match of the day, which SFS ultimately managed to post a win over IOB, the Americans never got into their rhythm. When asked about what went wrong after the match IOB captain Robinson said, "On the whole we couldn't give our 100 per cent. Our outside shooting was very weak and that led to our loss."
Results: Men's: Shooting for Success 84 (David Jones 22, Reggie Dunn 12) IOB 81 (S Robinson 18, Aravind 15, Vinith Matthew 14); Services 76 (Nixon 12, Sridhar 11, Shivraj 8) bt ONGC 51 (Nishant Kumar 10)
