Jai Srikrishna!

NAGPUR: It was Bhavan’s BVM show all the way. The tenth and final day of the inaugural Times Girls Basketball League turned out to be a memorable one for the Bhavan’s teams.
The Bhavan’s, Civil Lines, set the tone in the morning by edging out Modern School, Koradi Road 38-36 to clinch the third spot, while in the afternoon session their Srikrishna Nagar branch rounded up the perfect Wednesday by winning the final in front of hordes of spectators here at the Saraswati Vidyalaya court, Shankar Nagar.
In a nail-biting summit clash, BVM rallied back splendidly to down Centre Point School, Katol Road, 46-37. Shreya Dandekar emerged as the chief architect of BVM triumph as the national-level cager scored a massive 31 points.
The title clash was billed as the battle between Shreya and CPS’s Siddha Deshmukh. As expected, both the talented hoopsters performed well for their respective teams but Siddha’s best was not enough as Shreya had the last laugh in a final which lived up to the reputation and kept the crowd at the edge of their seats till the final whistle.
CPS got off to a flying start as Siddha found her bearing from the outset. Daughter of former Maharashtra captains Pankaj Deshmukh and Sonal Kavde, Siddha opened her team’s account with a two-pointer and having a ball in the first quarter (13-9) much to the delight of her mother, who was cheering her from the sidelines.
After winning the first quarter, BVM fought back brilliantly in the second (10-7) but were still trailing by a point at half-time (19-20).
The change of ends did the trick for BVM as they dominated the last two quarters to shatter the hopes of CPS.
Shreya did the bulk of the scoring and almost single-handedly controlled the match in BVM’s favour. Shreya, who had to miss the first couple of matches in the league due to a twisted ankle last week, produced champion stuff when it really mattered. She got able support from Madhushree Ghiye (10 points), Satakshi Kedia and Vaidehi Bhagat.
Siddha played fearlessly but in trying to go all out, she committed five fouls, which ended her stay at the court at the start of the fourth quarter. Siddha’s absence proved to be the turning point of the match as CPS lost the momentum in the final few minutes.
Although CPS girls tried hard to make up for the Siddha’s absence, they could not stop the rampaging BVM. Dhiviti Sanghani of CPS, who scored 11 points, missed some close baskets, much to the frustration of CPS coach Vinay Chikate.
RESULTS
Final: Bhavan’s BVM, Srikrishna Nagar (Shreya Dandekar 31, Madhushree Ghiye 10) bt CPS, Katol Road (Siddha Deshmukh 17, Dhiviti Sanghani 11) 46-37 (9-13, 10-7, 15-9, 12-8).
Third place play-off tie: Bhavan’s BVM, Civil Lines (Chaitanya Agrawal 18, Smruti Iyer 12, Paridhi Gupta 4) bt Modern School, Koradi Road (Rucha Aurangabadkar 24, Shibali Jaggi 4, Sanjana Khandelwal 4) 38-36 (18-4, 4-12, 4-12, 12-8).