WOMEN IN SEMIS
The Telangana women’s team defeated Tamil Nadu to enter the last four stage of the National Basketball Championship being played at Puducherry
Telangana women entered the semifinals of the Senior Nationals for the second year in a row with an 8170 win over Tamil Nadu on the sixth day of the 67th Senior National Basketball Championship being played at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Puducherry.
R. Ramya and M. Gayatri combined for 58 points for Telangana. Tamil Nadu attempted a late comeback, but it was not enough, as Telangana built an insurmountable lead in the first three quarters.
Telangana men too dished out a neat performance in their Group ‘D’ match to advance into the next level. Nikhil Sai Kumar, Shiv Kumar and A. Muthukumar were the stars of the show as they led the state to a comfortable 68-37 victory against Himachal Pradesh.
Meanwhile, in a Group ‘F’ match, Andhra Pradesh had to face defeat against Madhya Pradesh in a tight battle. The winners left behind Andhra with the score of 82-69.
Back to Day 6, result in the first quarterfinal was no surprise as Chhattisgarh won their game against Delhi. Poonam Chaturvedi put up another MVP type performance with 60 points in the game. Chhattisgarh’s strategy was simple — put the ball in Poonam’s hands in the post and she took care of the rest. Delhi was unable to contain the Chhattisgarh centre and fell to a 99-67 loss. Delhi captain Raspreet Sidhu put up 27 points.
Earlier in the day, on the outdoor courts, the Madhya Pradesh women’s team qualified for the quarterfinals with a tight win against Rajasthan (77-74). MP’s Sikkim import Nima Doma Bhutia was on fire pouring in 24 points in the game, including 9 straight down the stretch. Her teammate Namrata Huda scored the last four points to put her team up by 3 and close out the game. MP will have an uphill task against defending champions Indian Railways in the quarterfinals.
In the other women’s pre-quarterfinal, Karnataka fell to a spirited Maharashtra side in another nail-biter of a contest. Maharashtra’s international player Shireen Limaye was the difference between the two teams as she took over the game in the second half. Her 34 points in the game included 20 second-half points that kept her team in the contest. A couple of clutch triples by her teammate Rupali Tripathi (12 points) gave Maharashtra a 1point lead, downing Karnataka 62-61. Maharashtra will face Kerala in the quarterfinals.
In the men’s pre-quarterfinals, Rajasthan and Haryana sealed quarterfinal berths with victories against Gujarat and Odisha respectively. Rajasthan will take on Karnataka in the quarters, while Haryana will square off against last year’s finalists Uttarakhand, later in the day.
The first men’s quarterfinal of the day saw Punjab shake off its poor run to put on its best performance of the tournament against the Indian Railways. The first half was a close affair with both teams putting up an offensive show. Railways centre Gagandeep Singh remained consistent down low, putting up 25 points in the game. For Punjab, forward Gurvinder Singh Gill (20 points) was effective in the post against the big Railways frontcourt. But in the second half, former India international TJ Sahi (27 points) came out all guns blazing and took over the game. The Railways team were unable to contain his drives and transition play as he turned the game on its head, giving Punjab a doubledigit lead. He was ably assisted by guards Rajveer Singh (27 points) and Arshpreet Bhullar (22 points), who maintained Punjab’s 10+ point lead with timely buckets. Despite winning only one league game, Punjab has managed to qualify for the semifinals where they hope to continue the momentum from this performance.