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Hà Nội made a smooth start on their way to defend their title of the Northside Amateur Basketball Championship on July 12 at the Cầu Giấy Gymnasium in Hà Nội.
Basketball
Hà Nội and Hải Phòng players in action during the Northside Amateur Basketball Championship's opening match on July 12 at the Cầu Giấy Gymnasium in Hà Nội. Photos of New Sports
HÀ NỘI — Hà Nội made a smooth start on their way to defend their title of the Northside Amateur Basketball Championship on July 12 at the Cầu Giấy Gymnasium in Hà Nội.
The host side which included many big names in the basketball community such as Đặng Thái Hưng, Nguyễn Phú Hoàng and Nguyễn Minh Chung stormed to defeat Hải Phòng 106-69 in the opening match.
Hải Phòng impressed supporters with a perfect record in the Play-in round. But Hà Nội made them understand that Play-off was in another higher level. The visiting side tried their best in all four quarters but could not create many challenges before accepting their big loss to the reigning champions.
In another match of Group A, VPBox Phú Thọ and Cao Bằng were in balanced stiuation in most of the game time. Nguyễn Hoàng Long and Nguyễn Thọ Sơn of VPBox Phú Thọ made the difference in the last minutes with their scored series of points to end the match at 73-65.
In Group B, Thanh Hóa, who targeted the first time title after two times finishing second, proved their power to beat Ninh Bình, who returned after their absence last year, 90-50.
Meanwhile Đinh Tiến Công and Nguyễn Mạnh Hùng led Hà Nam to take an easy 75-58 win over Hòa Bình.
First-time participant Hưng Yên made their great effort trying to secure a winning debut in Group C. However their young roster could not block Quảng Ninh's strikers who were in the league's top four in the last season. They kept the score relatively balanced in the first two quarters before losing 64-85.
Chu Thành Đạt of Thái Bình is one of most impressive player of the night.
Captain Chu Thành Đạt made his own milestone when he reached career high of 40 points when he led Thái Bình to beat Hà Giang 106-65. Thái Bình were one of three teams who scored more than 100 points in their groups' opening matches.
Elsewhere, Bắc Giang beat Vĩnh Phúc 74-70 and Hải Dương won 120-92 over Nghệ An in Group D.
The annual Championship features 16 teams divided into four groups, competing from July 11-16. Top two teams of each group will qualify for the quarter-finals. The final is planned on July 19 with the winners walking away with VNĐ25 million along with valuable gifts. VNS