WAPDA and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) registered comfortable victories in the ongoing 50th Men’s National Basketball Championship here at the Pakistan Sports Complex Hamidi Hall on Saturday.
WAPDA faced little resistance against Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF) in their 77-63 victory, while PAF hammered Habib Bank Limited (HBL) 98-56. In the other two matches, Punjab recorded their second victory after beating FATA 85-57 and Islamabad had an easy outing against Balochistan in their 72-21 win.
WAPDA took off to a good start against POF taking the early initiative with some skilful play. They availed most of their scoring opportunities while POF struggled to get going in the first quarter. WAPDA were 23-16 ahead at the end of the first 10 minutes. POF found their feet in the second quarter and started to combine well. Even though they scored just one point less than their opponents in that period, WAPDA led 42-34 at the halfway stage. The third quarter belonged to POF, who scored 21 points and closed the gap. However, WAPDA upped the tempo of the game in the fourth quarter.
They took full control of the proceedings and forced POF players into making mistakes. WAPDA ran away with the match with as many as 18 points in the fourth quarter while POF managed just eight. Yawar Khan was the best player for WAPDA with a contribution of 25 points, while Ishrat Masood led POF’s challenge with 24 points.
PAF, who were made to sweat by Higher Education Commission in their first match, seemed to be an altogether different side against Habib Bank. PAF outplayed the Bankers in all departments of the game.
They led from the start to finish and never allowed HBL to make any sort of an impact on the game. Ahmed Jan and Akhtar were in a superb touch, adding 25 points each for PAF. Adnan Khan was Habib Bank’s top-scorer with 19 points. Punjab, who defeated Islamabad in their first game, continued their good run against FATA.
They were never tested at any stage of the match. Khalid Sadi of Punjab was the highest scorer of the match with 30 points. Islamabad registered their first win of the tournament with a comfortable victory against Balochistan. Rizwan Khurshid was the top-scorer for the winners with 17 points.
