Punjab Reds beat Punjab Blues 90-75 to win the National Junior Basketball Championship title organised by Pakistan Basketball Federation (PBF).
Punjab Blues, who defeated Islamabad in a close fight in the semifinals and had to work really hard to fend off a strong challenge from NWFP in a group match a day earlier, seemed to be feeling the effect of those clashes. They did not look at the top of their game and failed to match the speed and intensity of Reds in the final.
It was an action-packed, fast-paced game nevertheless. The first quarter was slightly tilted towards the eventual champions who controlled the proceedings well with some fine shooting skills and good defence.
Although Blues did not play badly, they missed some scoring opportunities and trailed by five points (15-20) at the end of the first 10 minutes. Blues began to get consistent in the second quarter. Taimoor started to find his scoring range and was the main man responsible for his team’s fight back.
The Blues strategy of feeding Taimoor to look for points paid off as they closed the gap to within a single point at the halfway stage. Reds led 38-37. The break seemed to have come at just the right time for the Reds, who earned a place in the final with a hard-fought victory over Islamabad in the semi-finals.
They returned to the court with a slightly different game plan. While Hasan Malik and Hasnain got their scoring streak going, the Reds also looked good in defence — especially on the defensive rebounds. They picked the tempo of the game and forced the Blues into making mistakes.
It was all Reds in the last two quarters. They stretched their lead to eight points in the third quarter and pulled away of the Blues’ reach in the last 10 minutes with a solid team effort.
Hasan Malik was the man of the final for Punjab Reds. He availed most of his scoring chances, finishing the game with 33 high points. Hasnain supported him really well with a contribution of 22 points while Ali Raza helped in with 11.
Punjab Blues’ lanky centre Taimoor led his team’s challenge with 37 points, the highest individual score in the final. Naseeb Raza, Gul Hasan and Shahzad were the other main scorers for Blues with eight, seven and seven points respectively.
Earlier, NWFP beat Islamabad 54-48 in the match between the losing semifinalists to finish third in the eight-team championship. The Sarhad boys opened up an eight-point lead in the first quarter and played steadily till the end to earn a six-point victory in the end.
The local lads did play well — as they did in the entire tournament — but seemed to lack the intensity after losing an energy-sapping semifinal against the Blues. Waqar Ahmed was NWFP’s best player with 17 points while Umer Zahid and Taimoor Khan also had a good game for their 14 and 10 points respectively.
Uzair Ahmed, Islamabad’s most consistent player in the tournament, top-scored for the host team with 15 points. M Moaaz Munir (8) and Shumail Shigri (5) were their other main players.

While in the semi-final round Punjab Reds, who topped Group A with a perfect 3-0 win-loss record, kept their unbeaten run going but not before facing stiff resistance from the NWFP boys.
Reds led by just three points (52-49) at the end of the third quarter after both teams were tied at 33-33 at the halfway stage. NWFP managed to overhaul that lead in the opening few minutes of the last quarter but Reds, led by Hasan Malik, again took control of the proceedings and kept their cool to emerge victors.
In the second semi-final, Punjab Blues were made to sweat by a fighting Islamabad team. Blues, who defeated NWFP 72-71 in perhaps the best match of the tournament thus far, again faced a similar situation as the hosts pushed them all the way.
Islamabad opened the first quarter in a confident fashion, making use of their opportunities and defending well to keep the free-scoring Punjab Blues boys relatively quiet. The local lads led by six points (23-17) at the end of the first quarter.
After the break, Islamabad lost the services of M Moaaz Munir and Ahmed Saqib Ali because of foul trouble and Blues started taking advantage of that factor. But still there was very little to choose from the sides.
Islamabad managed to go clear by four points (68-64) at one stage but the Punjab boys kept their cool and played a steady game to overhaul that lead. Blues went ahead with Gul Hassan and Naseeb Raza making crucial baskets and it was left to Uzair Ahmed to lead Islamabad’s fight back.