National basketball championship: Punjab men, TN women enter semis

Punjab, going for a hat-trick of titles, found its moorings as it outplayed former champion Uttarakhand 90-63 in the quarterfinals of the 71st Senior National basketball championships on Friday.

Amjyot Singh (white) of Punjab about to score against Uttarakhand during the 71st Senior National Basketball Championship Tournament.

The form of the Punjab men’s team was a question mark. For it had lost back-to-back matches. The defending champion, going for a hat-trick of titles, found its moorings as it outplayed former champion Uttarakhand 90-63 in the quarterfinals of the 71st Senior National basketball championships here on Friday. Punjab’s power forward Amjyot Singh, who was missing regular baskets in two previous matches, came good with 21 points.

Comprising a squad of 11 college players and a school kid, Tamil Nadu punched above its height by reaching the women’s semifinals, after defeating Punjab 73-70. While the first quarter saw TN lead 22-13, it trailed in the next two: 9-17 & 21-29, but raced away to 21-11 in the final quarter. TN's J. Sruthy was the most outstanding player with 21 points and 15 defensive rebounds. Semifinal line-up : Men: TN vs Indian Railways; Punjab vs Karnataka; Women: TN vs Indian Railways; Telangana vs Kerala.

The results (Quarterfinals):Men: Karnataka 82 (C.R. Abhishek Gowda 16, B.K. Anil Kumar  13, Pratyanshu Tomar 14, Harrish Muthu Kumar 20, A. Arvind 11) bt Haryana 65 (Lalit 29, Pradeep 10, Sunil Rathee 12). Punjab 90 (Akash Sharma 11, Kanwar Gurbal Singh Sandhu 19, Amjyot Singh 22) bt Uttarakhand 64 (Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 33, Prashant Rawat 17). Indian Railways 90 (Santosh Mani 13, C. Praveen Kumar 13, Palpreet Singh 25, Rakesh 12) bt Services 68 (Akhilesh Kumar 14, Deepak 13, Nikhil Kumar 13, Ajay Singh 14). Women: Indian Railway 94 (H.M. Bandhavya 18, Madhu Kumari 10, Nima Doma Bhutia 21, Gulabsha Ali 19) bt Assam 36. Kerala 83 (Stephy Nixon 12, Kavitha Jose 17, Minnu Maria Joy 12, R. Seekala 22, Aneesha Cleetus 12) bt Karnataka  79 (Grishma Niranjan 22, Loopa Mudra Thimmaiah 14, Varsha Nandhini 12). Telangana 72 (Aswathy Thampi 22, R. Anbarasi 15, P. Priyanka 10, A.M. Anjusree 12) bt MP 64 (Priya Sharma 28, Divyani Gangwal 11, Manali Vora 11). TN 73 (A. Asmitha 16, J. Ishwarya 10, R. Sruthy 21) bt Punjab 70 (Ritika 22, Bhavika Dhir 10, Manpreet Kaur 19).