Experienced Ernakulam too strong for Thrissur.

There were some third-quarter fireworks from Thrissur but that was not enough to trouble men’s defending champion Ernakulam as its won its second Group ‘A’ league match with a 61-44 verdict in the 68th Kerala State senior basketball championship at the Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadium on Wednesday night.

Ernakulam led 34-19 at half-time but Thrissur, a bunch of college students from Sree Kerala Varma and Christ, cut down the champion’s lead to just eight points at 38-30 in the third quarter with C.K. Abhinav and Irfan Saheer hoisting some nice threes from the flanks. But the tall and experienced Ernakulam men were back to form in the last quarter and won comfortably with captain Antony Johnson and Shiras Muhammed doing the bulk of the scoring.

“My boys were too scared, they missed too many under-basket attempts... but we will come back,” said Thrissur coach Sunny Thomas, a former Ernakulam coach and State star. “Our goal is to enter the semifinal.”