Chandigarh : Led by the two big names of Indian basketball — Amritpal Singh and Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Ahmedabad Wingers comfortably beat Lucknow Ligers 21-11 in the final to win the men’s Conference ‘B’ Round 1 title of the 3×3 Pro Basketball League, here on Thursday.
While Lucknow Ligers were able to upset the Wingers 21-17 in the pool stages, the final proved to be a different matter. Buoyed by the return of their 7ft India centre Amritpal Singh, Wingers made short work of Ligers. The game was tied 7-7 before the ‘Big Singh’ took over the paint.
The Wingers’ lead swelled to 17-9 as Ligers’ relatively undersized centres Sowkin Shetty and Dinesh Mishra seemingly had no answers to keep Singh away from the basket.
Earlier in the pool stages, Ahmedabad Wingers also pulled off an improbable upset over Chennai Icon, despite having only two players.
Before the start of the game, Wingers were already missing the 7ft India centre Amritpal Singh. Then, less than a minute into tip-off, 3BL regular Rajan Sharma suffered an injury. This forced Indian basketball captain Vishesh Bhriguvanshi and Abhyudaya Yadav to compete against three opposing players.
As it turned out, two players were more than enough as the Wingers cruised to a 10 point, 21-11, win.
“Somehow we managed and got the victory,” Bhriguvanshi said after the game. His teammate Yadav, who led the charge with his bruising drives to the basket added, “We were just very persistent. It is good to play under the leadership of such players like Vishesh bhaiyya, Rajan bhaiyya and also Amritpal Singh.”
3BL, the only 3X3 Professional Basketball League in India, is backed by the Basketball Federation of India and the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) and has the participation of top national and international men’s and women’s 3X3 basketball players.
–IANS
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