Samantha Fernandes played the lead role as Rajhans Vidyalaya (Andheri) did well to defeat Bombay Scottish (Mahim) by a slender 9-7 margin in a closely-fought girls under-11 quarter-final match of the MSSA inter-schools football tournament at Azad Maidan on Tuesday.

Showing plenty of confidence with her shooting, Samantha scored seven points, including the decisive basket at the death, which helped Rajhans snatch victory.

Bombay Scottish's Veda Sriranjan kept her school stay in the fight as she converted chances that came her way to score all seven points for her team.

The girls from both schools played aggressively as they tried to drive through the rival defence to find the hoop.

As a result, there was plenty of excitement till the final whistle.

Akshra G scored the first basket for Rajhans Vidyalaya, who led 2-1 in the first quarter. Later, Samantha scored two baskets as Rajhans went into the break 6-1.

Bombay Scottish came back fighting after the break and reduced the gap to 6-3 in the third. They continued to put pressure on the Rajhan board and Veda found the ring twice to level the match at 7-all.

With a little less than a minute remaining, Samantha cut in from the right and with a match-winning effort scored another basket to put her team into the lead and emerge victors. Scottish had their chances but failed to convert some easy chances and had to bow out.

In other matches, Vibgyor High (Malad) tamed Vibgyor ICSE (Goregaon) 16-1 and Don Bosco International (Matunga) beat Yashodham (Goregaon) 12-2.

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