Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai, beat Karnataka men 71-40 in their final league match in the 4th edition of the Mulki Ram Shetty All India Basketball  Tournament conducted by Vijaya Bank at Kanteerava Stadium Courts here yesterday.

The final day of league match action at the 4th Mulki Sunder Ram Shetty All India Basketball Tournament tipped off with the ICF taking on the young men of Karnataka State team. ICF got off to a quick start nailing their 1st two three pointers. P. Vijay was yet again relentless in his pursuit for offensive rebounds. The ICF guards played the passing lanes throughout the quarter and came up with some easy steals in the process. Bethle left his mark on the game by dictating the tempo and flow of his team’s offence. Karnataka’s young guards managed to come up with a couple of steals for easy fast break points but ICF’s dominance on both ends meant that the tone for the game was set in the very 1st quarter itself. ICF ended quarter leading 31-11.

The 2nd quarter saw Jaya Venkatesh of ICF share some of the scoring load with P. Vijay. Venkatesh displayed his mid-range prowess as he knocked down jumpers with high accuracy. Bethle continued to distribute the ball well and get his teammates involved as ICF added to an already healthy lead.

In response, Karnataka decided to run the high pick and roll and attack middle which only backfired as ICF doubled the ball man and forced turnovers. The game entered half time with a 34-point ICF lead, 47-13.

The 3rd quarter opened with a 7-2 ICF run which gave ICF’s coach Nazar the opportunity to rest his point guard. In Bethle’s absence, the play-making responsibilities were taken over by K. Parma Prakash while P. Vijay became the focal point of the team’s offence. Jaya Venkatesh continued his hot shooting streak throughout the quarter which helped the coach rest P. Vijay as well.

Karnataka coughed up the ball frequently and helped ICF increase its lead to as much as 39 points mid-way through the final quarter of play.

The last two minutes of the quarter saw Karnataka play some solid defence and force ICF into turnovers as the game ended 71-40 in ICF’s favour.

Final score

ICF: 71 (K. Mukunth 21, P. Vijay 18) beat Karnataka State: 40 (Shashank Rai 10) [31-11, 16-02, 13-09, 11-18].

Indian Overseas Bank: 85 (Aravind Annadurai 16, Prasanna Venkatesh 10) bt RCF Kapurthala: 64 (Harmanpreet Singh 13).

Chennai Customs: 90 (Justin 36, Hariram 19) bt Karnataka State: 75 (Shashank Rai 18, Manu Thomas 13).