The stars of the NSL were out in full-force as Tanishq Sughnani and John Carlo Bautista led their squads through the quarter-finals in Dubai on Saturday night.
Sughnani’s Dubai International Academy (DIA) remained unbeaten with a nail-biting 38-32 victory over Philippine Emirates Private School (PEPS) in the under-16 category at GEMS Sports Academy.
PEPS did everything in their power to limit Sughnani, who entered the contest tied for the most points in the age group at 62. The point guard faced constant ball-denial, as well as double-teams and triple-teams whenever he touched the ball.
Sughnani still finished with 16 points, but his team-mates stepped up as Avineet Gouri and Francis Christle had seven points each in one of the team’s better collective performances in the tournament.
On the other side of the under-16 bracket, Bautista’s game-high 27 points gave The Philippine School (TPS) all the ammunition they needed to take down previously-undefeated 21st Century Private School, 52-36.
The early going saw Centurians in control as they held an 8-5 lead over TPS at the end of the first quarter.
After that, however, the zone defence of TPS clamped down and converted turnovers and missed shots into easy transition points.
In under-14, Delhi Private School Sharjah (DPS) fought back to earn an upset win against 21st Century, 32-23.
Centurians were ahead for most of the contest before a 3-pointer by DPS with just less than two minutes remaining gave the underdogs a lead they wouldn’t surrender.
The only Abu Dhabi school to have success in Dubai was the International School of Choueifat (ISC), who beat GEMS Modern Academy 36-28 in under-14.
Kareem Eid had a double-double with 14 points and 17 rebounds to add to his NSL-leading numbers on the boards. The match-ups for the semi-finals are set, with times to follow this week at www.sport360.com/nsl.
