Dubai: The ANF All Stars and the Blue Rhine Eagles secured contrasting wins to set up a meeting in the final of the eighth Berry Hills Indian Basketball League organised by the Indian Basketball Society (IBS), UAE.
ANF All Stars powered past Hustlers 71-52 while the Blue Rhine Eagles secured a hard-fought 64-60 win over Michi City Fives in the two semi-finals played at Al Mamzar’s Salah Al Deen sports hall earlier this week.
ANF All Stars led in the first two quarters, but the Hustlers fought back in the third quarter to cut the lead to six points to 45-39. But the All Stars upped their game in the final quarter to reach 26-13, with Manoj Abraham top-scoring with 20 points and Baven Kuruvilla with 19.
In the second semi-final, Kevin V. John top-scored with 24 points to help the Blue Rhine Eagles to victory over Michi Sports City Fives. The Eagles led 17-12 at the end of the first quarter, but ended level 16-16 in the second to hold on to their five-point cushion at half-time.
In the third period, the Eagles took a ten-point lead at 48-38, only to see the City Fives fight back through Lijo Joseph to outscore their opponents 22-16 to fall short by a mere four points.
In the women’s division semi-finals, Michi Jaguars beat Stars Dubai 41-24 to reach the finals. At half-time the Jaguars led 27-14.
The league concludes this week with the third place play-offs at 6pm on Thursday followed by the finals from 4pm to 10 pm on Friday.
