Western wake in time to top group

If Pool B ran a predictable course, the pool of death (Pool A) saw another twist, as Eastern Railway put behind their loss to Northern yesterday, running away 65-47 winners over group leader Central. The big margin not only confirmed Eatern’s entry into the semis, but also put Central’s chances in jeopardy. Central will go through only if Northern Railway lose to South-Central.

Western were impressive for the majority of the game, until Southern’s Renjini Jose woke them up by pumping in one three-pointer and threejumpers as Southern crawled out of the hole (37-56).

At 60-all, the alarm bells were ringing loud and clear. At 62-64 down, they really were neck deep in trouble. Captain Deepali Shah bailed them out with three baskets, helped in a large measure by brilliant passes provided by ball-handler Shanti Saldanha.

Western then bolted to a 71-64 victory.

It was a well-fought match with some great one-on-one showdowns. Pivot Ivy Cherian was checked well by veteran international Prasanna Jayashankar, but she was undefeated at the boards, despite Southern playing two pivots, Prasanna and Meenalatha.

With the Southern pivots not firing, they looked to guard Bindu Koroth for outside shooting and drives. But Sheeba Maggon was quick to bottle her up, forcing Bindu to give way to Renjini.

At half-time, Western had a slender two point lead (33-31) and when Southern failed to breach the Western defence, they were looking down the barrel at 37-56. Then came Renjini Jose’s shooting binge, Western made four turn-oversand slackened on defence.

But Western soon regrouped. Shanti provided the assists, the cool Meena Singh and the prolific Sheeba converted crucial baskets, while Ivy came good on the pivot.

The absence of the hard-working Jiji Jose, to an ankle injury incurred during yesterday night’s match, hampered Central’s gameplan. Central stayed in the game through the first half, Jiji even making a desperate appearance.

But Eastern had done their homework, Aparna Ghosh and Philomine Joseph scintillating in offence. Central’s game just collapsed in the second half.

Results
Men: Central 78 (Abdul Hamid Khan 22, Fazil Shaikh 19, Imran Ansari 15) bt Eastern 68 (D Kumar 15, S Chatterjee 18, P Mumpouy 11) HT: 34-37; Northern 76 (J Jayaraman 22, R Raja 13) bt Diesel Component Workshop 62 (Manish Kumar 16, Jaideep Birgh 29) HT: 37-28; Chittarajan Loco Works 81 (SK Singh 26, DJ Ghosh 26, A Azam 15) bt North Frontier 70 (R Bora 19, M Saikia 11) HT: 40-36.

Women: Central 56 (Geo Jose 16, Jiji Jose11, Shinymol 8) bt South- Central 52 (Shreeja 8, Yamuna Philip 9); Eastern 65 (Aparna Ghosh 30, Stimita Dhirendra 11) bt Central 47 (Geo Jose 19, Sindhu Nair 10, Shinymol Jacob 9) HT: 32-29; North-Eastern 59 (Bindu 15, TL Sindhu 16) bt North Frontier 36 (S Begum 15, A Mujumdar 9) HT: 33-20; Western 71 (Ivy Cherian 13, Deepali Shah 16, BS Meena 16, Sheeba Maggon 14) bt Southern 64 (Bindu Koroth 12, BS Shyla 19, Renjini Jose 13) HT: 33-31.