State-level basketball: Mastan boys too strong for One World Intenational

Mastan YMCA began their campaign with an easy 45-18 win over One World Intenational Sports Centre (OWISC) in the U-13 category of 23rd Bombay YMCA Open state-level basketball tournament at the Ghatkopar YMCA here on Thursday.

Experienced Mastan were too strong for OWISC, who comprised players of 10 and 11 years of age. The former side capitalised on their height advantage to give their opponents no chance in the game.

OWISC boys tried to counter their size disadvantage by passing the ball as much as they could avoiding easy steals by Mastan.

Their ploy failed and they were unable to open their score in the first quarter as their opponents built up a 13-point lead. OWSIC were neither able to form zonal marking nor attach their players to opponents in a man-to-man defense, as most of Mastan’s baskets came from fast breaks leaving no chance for any sort of organised system to settle.

Mastan eased the pressure from the second quarter onwards. The second quarter ended at 23-6, a more respectable score for OWISC. However, they resumed the game with vigour after half time and scored 14 points in response to OWISC’s one basket in the third period. With such a large lead, the Mastan boys relaxed again in the last quarter allowing their opponents to score more points than they had in the rest of the game.

Sameer Quershi and Khalid Khan top-scored for YMCA Mastan with 18 and 7 points respectively. Sumeet Gala did best among the OWISC lads with 8 points to his name.