Railways, Kerala in women title clash

JAIPUR, MARCH 20: Holders Indian Railways thrashed Maharshtra 82-37 and entered the women's final in the 49th Senior National Basketball ...

JAIPUR, MARCH 20: Holders Indian Railways thrashed Maharshtra 82-37 and entered the women’s final in the 49th Senior National Basketball Championship at the S M S Stadium here this evening. Indian Railways will now meet Kerala in the final on Monday, who whipped Tamil Nadu 71-42 in the other semi final.

Indian Railways outfits combined so well that Maharashtra women had just no answer to them. They were accurate in their dodging passes besides their accurate shooting. Railways were placed in a strong position in the first session itself as they had established a lead of 42-13.

Brilliant shooting by Binu Cherian from all angles led Kerala to their resounding victory over Tamil Nadu. Versatile Binu was very much in her moments besides her ability to net the basket through her round arm, under arm and driving from long distance. Tamil Nadu girls could not match to her speed.

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Bihar, Punjab in final: It will be a repeat of last year’s final in the men’s section between holders Bihar and runners-upPunjab.

Bihar had a cake walk win over Services 67-39 after taking a strong lead of 38-12 at the breather while Punjab had to struggle hard in the first session before beating Tamil Nadu 70-54. Services, who had stunned Punjab in the league round, appeared to be a different side as they never looked matching their rivals. The best match of the tournament was between holders Bihar and Karnataka. After trailing 34-35 at half-time, Bihar staged a comeback and piped a never-say-die Karnataka 79-75 (63-63 at regulation time).

BS Gautam of Karnataka stole the limelight by scoring his team’s last 16 points. He was also responsible for putting Karnataka at par by converting four successive free throws after Bihar were leading 63-59. In extra time too, he scored 12 valuable points which were studded with three three-pointer baskets.

Results

Men’s (SF) Bihar 67 (Jaldeep Dhaliwal 17, M Islauddin 20, Nishant Kumar 12) bt Services 37 (GRL Prasad 17, SN Rao, Phool Singh 10, Jaswinder Singh10); Punjab 70(Parminder Singh Sr 35, Vipin Kumar 13 , Gagnesh Kumar 14) btTamil Nadu 54 (Jay Shankar 12, Gopinath 12, Sridhar 11); Qf: Bihar 79(Jaldeep Dhaliwal 30, Nishant Kumar 24, NS Rawat 11) bt Karnataka 75 (Murlimohan 26, BS Gautam 22, Stalin 16); Punjab 76(Parminder Singh 35, Gagnesh 17, Vipin Kumar 10) bt Railways 57(Ram Kumar 23, Vishal Kumar 15); Services 59(Phool Singh 23, Sweeto Francis 15) bt West Bengal 25 (Surjit Dey 11); Tamil Nadu 78(AD Sukavaneshwar 14, V Sarvanan 14) bt Maharashtra 36Women’s (SF) Railways 82 (Geo Jose 24, Meena 16, Jiji Jose 13) bt Maharashtra 37 (Lincy Joseph 13, Arnika Gujar 10); Kerala 71 (Binu Cherian 30, P Sandhya 14, Liji George 13) bt TN 42 (Shyamla 11, Josepin 11).