Our Own Al Warqa’a’s Simon Koshy fittingly led his U16 team to victory the day after his favourite basketball player had a heroic moment.
Doing his best Derrick Rose impression, Koshy propelled his squad to a 55-29 victory over Indian High School (IHS) at GEMS Sports Academy in Dubai’s third weekend of NSL Basketball games yesterday.
The point guard dropped 20 points, along with three assists and four steals in an all-round performance. Our Own led throughout, but with IHS fighting back in the third quarter, Koshy drained consecutive 3-pointers to push the lead to 31-17.
Our Own continued to push in the fourth quarter and finished with a comfortable win as Koshy was named the player of the game.
“It’s great, it’s the first time I’m getting the MVP,” he said. “Especially thanks to my team-mates, there was good coordination between everyone.”
A player who isn’t new to earning top individual honours is Tanishq Sughnani, who once again spurred Dubai International Academy (DIA) to victory in their 48-29 defeat of Regent International School in an U16 clash.
Sughnani scored 31 points and grabbed five rebounds as he dictated DIA’s offence. From probing the paint and hitting daggers on the perimetre, to setting up his team-mates with adept passes, the point guard was instrumental.
He flashed his shooting touch in the fourth quarter with his squad well ahead, splashing back-to-back 3-pointers before adding a highlight block to cap a masterful effort.
“We basically killed them with our speed, fast breaks and 3-pointers,” Sughnani said. “Overall, we played really well.”
Sughnani was named the player of the game for a third straight occasion as DIA moved to a perfect 3-0, but he feels his team can still play better collectively.
“We have to get more people involved,” Sughnani said. “Mainly it’s one person or two people scoring. We need everyone out there helping and scoring.”
The thrilling finish of the day came in the opening U14 contest when Michael Reid sank a game-winning layup in the final seconds to edge Dubai College past GEMS Modern Academy 21-20.
With Dubai College trailing by one, Reid collected the inbound pass, made a beeline to the basket, beat the defence and finished off the glass to leave only enough time for GEMS to hoist a failed half-court heave.
“I was very nervous when I was running up to the basket, but I was just praying it went in and it did, so I was happy,” said Reid, who totalled 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks.
In a U16 battle of attrition, Dubai British School (DBS) clamped down on defence to suffocate Millennium School 22-13. Sherif was the high-man with 12 points, nearly outscoring the opponent himself with aggressive play.
“We played really hard at the start and kept shooting, kept shooting and in the end we took it from them,” he said. “They played really good defence but in the end we took the game.”
The top individual performance in U14 belonged to Munthazeer Manaf, who recorded a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds in New Indian Model School’s (NIMS) 51-23 victory over Ambassador School Dubai.
Indian High School had better luck with their U14 team as they topped Our Own Al Warqa’a 30-25 in a closely-contested meeting.
The other U16 match-up saw the Philippine School remain unbeaten with a convincing 68-26 blowout win against NIMS.
