St. Peter's Boys and Vidyodaya Girls win Chennai's inaugural IMG-Reliance School Basketball League

The finals of the IMG-Reliance School League in Chennai were held on Saturday, December 11th, as both the boys’ and girls’ games were won handedly by St. Peter’s Hr. Sec. School (Perambur) and Vidyodaya Hr. Sec. School respectively. Both teams remained undefeated throughout the tournament en route to this victory.

For the first time in India, IMG-Reliance, along with the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), have been organising a home-and-away Inter-School basketball league system for Indian youngsters. It was first conducted in New Delhi from August 16-October 20th. Featuring a total of 20 school teams in the Girls’ and Boys’ divisions, the Chennai league had tipped off on the 22nd of November.

In the Boys’ final, Gopal from St. Peter’s scored a team high 23 points to lead his team towards an easy victory over Sherwood Hall, 88-66. Sam Sunder of Sherwood pitched in 29 points in a losing effort.

In the Girls’ final, a balanced effort by Vidyodaya saw them blowing out Lady Sivaswami by 26 points, 70-44. Niranjana scored 24 points for the losing team.

Earlier on Saturday, the 3/4th place match-ups were also held for teams both in the boys and girls divisions. In the Boys game, MCTM won 20-0 in a walkover by their opponents PSBB (KK Nagar). In the Girls’ game St. Joseph’s defeated St. Raphael’s 62-49 to clinch third place.

IMG-Reliance awarded a cash amount rupees 75000, 50000, 30000 was given to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams for both boys and girls respectively. This amount was designated to be used for the development of basketball in their schools. Additionally, a cash amount of Rs 2000, Rs 1500, Rs 1000 was given to each individual player of the winning teams (boys and girls), runners-up, and third-place team respectively.

The tournament’s top scorers in both boys’ and girls’ division were also awarded with Rs. 2500 each. Arjun of PSBB (175 points) and Deepika SM of Chettinad Vidhyashram (128) points walked home with this prize.

Scores

Third/Fourth Place Matches

Boys: MCTM 20 bt. PSBB KK Nagar 0 walkover.
Girls: St. Joseph’s 62 (Rachel 13, Devi 12) bt. St. Raphael’s 49 (Divya 15, Sowmiya 14).

Finals

Boys: St. Peter’s 88 (Gopal 23) bt. Sherwood Hall 66 (Sam Sunder 29).
Girls: Vidyodaya 70 (Kiruthiga 15) bt. Lady Sivaswami 44 (Niranjana 24).

Final Standing

Boys

1. St. Peter’s Hr. Sec. School
2. Sherwood Hall Hr. Sec. School
3. MCTM Hr. Sec. School

Girls

1. Vidydodaya Hr. Sec. School
2. Lady Sivaswami Hr. Sec. School
3. St. Joseph’s Hr. Sec. School