U-13 basketball: St Anthony’s girls, Don Bosco boys clinch the title

The St Anthony’s U-13 girls are all smiles with their trophy on Saturday

Defending champions St Anthony's (Chembur) asserted their supremacy over Auxilium Convent (Wadala) with a fighting 16-13 win in an engrossing girls under-13 final of the MSSA inter-school basketball tournament at the MSSA School Sports Centre, Azad Maidan recently.

Later, in the boys final, Don Bosco (Matunga) were on a roll and cruised past arch-rivals St Joseph's (Wadala), registering a convincing 25-10 victory.

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The Don Bosco boys with their medals on Saturday. Pics/Atul Kamble

The girls final match witnessed a closely contested battle for top honours. St Anthony's were well-served by Vanya Shetty, who sank three baskets, including the last two, which denied Auxilium a fightback and secured their win. Vanya received good support from teammate Arya Dalvi, who contributed four points towards the team's success. Swara Takke, Ajitha Nadar and Kushi Garde found the hoop in quick succession as Auxilium momentarily took a slender one-point lead. But, Vanya came to the rescue for St Anthony with two crucial baskets at the death to seal their triumph. Auxilium scored five points through Swara and four points each through Ajitha and Kushi.

The Matunga boys went on the offensive right from the start and dominated the first two quarters, scoring 12 and five points respectively, racing to a 17-0 half-time lead. Their Wadala neighbours were unable to put up a fight and, thanks to some poor shooting, were unable to score a single point in the first half.
Cathedral & John Connon School (Fort) defeated Don Bosco International (Matunga) 11-7 in the girls third-place match, while Cathedral defeated Kohinoor International School (Vidyavihar) 14-7 to win the boys third-place tie.