Karnataka came from behind yet again to defeat Indian Railways 83-67 in a men’s quarterfinal clash of the 69th senior National basketball championship at the Sidsar Sports Complex courts here on Thursday.
Interestingly, the team has made it to the semifinal after almost 15 years. Karnataka had surprised defending champion Tamil Nadu in the league stages and today it was Railway’s turn. It worked out a similar strategy (change in defence pattern) as it did against Tamil Nadu and it clicked.
In fact, Karnataka trailed in the first two quarters but it applied full court pressure in the next two sessions to take the lead and seal a win. M. Harissh (23 pts), A. Arvind (21pts) and V.K. Anil Kumar (17 pts) were once again the pick of the scorers for the team.
TN survives scare
Tamil Nadu and Services, the top two teams, also sealed the last four berth. The former kept its cool in the final minutes of the game to oust Haryana 77-75 and the latter, on the other hand, hammered Rajasthan 104-69. Punjab was the other team to make it to the last four.
In the women’s section, the Karnataka women failed to inspire going down 80-100 to Chhattisgarh, which had the lean and lanky Poonam Chaturvedi scoring a tournament-high of 56 points. But defending champion Indian Railway cruised to a comfortable 94-51 win over an off-colour Punjab.
Earlier, the in-form S. Pushpa (24 pts) doubled up her efforts to steer Tamil Nadu to a 75-57 win over Telangana for a place in the last four. The win was expected considering the quality and consistency of its players. It will take on Kerala, which scored a facile 84-55 win over Delhi.
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