POSTED BY: Eurobasket Center
Leopards won the three-a-side basketball tournament with a comfortable 45-36 victory over Shaheens in the final played at the indoor courts of the Army Sports Stadium in Rawalpindi on Friday.
Khalid and Mir Alam scored 16 points each for Leopards while Muddasir contributed 13. Atif was Shaheens' main player with 14 points while Imran and Gul Hassan chipped in with 12 and 10 points respectively.
Hawks defeated Scorpios 53-40 in the match-up of the losing semi-finalists to claim third position in the tournament.
Akhtar top-scored for Hawks with 23 points while Adnan and Shehryar helped in with 18 points each for Scorpios.
Chairman Pakistan Amateur Basketball Federation ad hoc committee Major General (Retd) Sarfraz Iqbal was the chief guest at the prize distribution ceremony.
The tournament was organised by the PABBF ad hoc committee with as many as 14 teams taking part in the event. Seven teams were made up of the 20 national camp trainees for the first Islamic Solidarity Games while the rest comprised local club players.
The Pakistan team for the Islamic Solidarity Games, to be staged in Saudi Arabia, is likely to be announced on Monday (Feb 21).
After the prize distribution ceremony, General Sarfraz said that the main objective of the ad hoc committee was to promote basketball in the country. "We all love this game and I want to see basketball played by all the young kids," he said.
"On our part we have and we will organise more tournaments to give players more opportunities. Besides national level tournaments, the ad hoc committee has held referees' clinics and other basketball-related activities."
Talking to the national camp trainees he said that besides polishing their basketball skills they should also work on their fitness, which is vital to be successful at the highest level.
