MYSORE lifted the C. B. Gupta Trophy, defeating Kerala 56-51 in the final of the All-India inter-zone inter-university women's basketball tournament conducted by Alagappa University at Karaikudi.
Eight teams, four from North East Zone — Punjab, Guru Nanak Dev, Punjabi and Delhi participated in the tournament, which was played on league-cum knock-out basis.
For the league phase the teams were divided into two pools of four teams each.
In pool A, Calicut, GNDU, Madras and Delhi fought out and in Pool B, Punjab, Kerala, Punjabi and Mysore played.
Surprisingly, all the four teams from North East Zone made their exit in the league phase itself and all the four teams from South West Zone, including the defending champion, Calicut, qualified for the semi-finals.
Mysore, the fourth team to qualify from the South West Zone improved by leaps and bounds in the one month gap between the South West Zone meet and the All India tournament. It won two matches in the league phase against the North East Zone champion, Punjab (67-47) and Punjabi (64-43) with good margins but lost narrowly to Kerala 76-82 and made the semi-final grade as a second team from Pool A. Kerala finished on top of the Pool with an all-win record.
Madras and defending champion, Calicut made the semi-final grade from Pool B with three wins and two wins each respectively.
In the semif-finals, Kerala upset the defending champion Calicut by a narrow (62-61) margin. Mysore had a comfortable 66-54 victory over Madras. In the Kerala-Calicut tie, it was basket for basket till the end. While Anjana (34 pts.) and Sonia (17) were basketing accurately for Kerala, Lajitha (28) and Seena Joseph (14) were equally good for Calicut. The first quarter saw both the teams locked at 19-all. At half-time, Kerala was trailing by two points (35-37) but by the end of the third quarter the teams were level once again at 50-50. In the fourth, the score went alternately till 59-all with hardly a minute to go. At this stage Kerala went into a 62-59 lead with a basket by Anjana and a free throw conversion by Sonia Joseph. With hardly 25 seconds to go Lajitha got a basket to cut the lead to 61-62. But Kerala, which got possession of the ball for the remaining time, won amidst great excitement.
In the Mysore-Madras tie too, it was a neck and neck fight till the end of the third quarter when the teams were level 47-47. But in the fourth Mysore asserted its superiority with the brilliance of Yashu Kumari (15), who found the basket fluently aided by all-rounder Reshma (16), Shalini (16) and best ball handler of the tournament Shanthi, to win 66-54.
In the final, Mysore took a substantial 15-point lead (23-8) in the first quarter itself and that lead stood in good stead for a 56-51 victory, though Kerala put up a back to wall fight.
Incidentally, it was a sweet revenge for Mysore as it lost to Kerala in the league phase and also in the South West Zone tournament a month back at the same venue.
In the play-off for the third place, Madras had an easy 69-52 win over Calicut.
Dr. A. Ramasamy, Vice-Chancellor, Alagappa University presided and gave away the prizes.
The results: Final: Mysore 56 (Reshma 16, Yashu Kumari 15, Shanthi 11) bt Kerala 51 (Sonia Joseph 16, Anjana 21). Play off match: Madras 69 (Lakshmi Deepa 21, Adhirai 22) bt Calicut 52 (Lajitha 18, Cini T. Antony 10). Semi-finals: Mysore 66 (Yeshukumari 15, Shalini 16, Reshna 16) bt Madras 54 (Lakshmi Devi 19, Adhirai 16); Kerala 62 (Anjana 34, Sonia Joseph 17, S. Jose 10) bt Calicut 61 (Lajitha 28, Cini J. Antony 11, Seena Joseph 14).
Pool A: Madras bt Guru Nanak Dev 83-51; bt Calicut 96-75; bt Delhi 53-58. Calicut bt Delhi 62-23; bt GNDU 70-58. GNDU bt Delhi 49-30.
Pool B: Kerala bt Punjabi 62-25; bt Punjab 62-51; bt Mysore 82-76. Mysore bt Punjab 67-46; bt Punjabi 64-43. Punjab bt Punjabi 61-20.
G. Venugopal
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