The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Another good win for Railway women

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 30, 2004

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Sport - Basketball

Another good win for Railway women

By Kamesh Srinivasan

LUDHIANA, DEC. 29. Defending champion Railways asserted itself with a 99-70 victory over Chhattisgarh in a women's Group `A' super league match of the Dhanoa 55th National basketball championship at the Guru Nanak Sports Complex here on Wednesday.

With the cream of the country's talent in its fold, including two good players from Chhattisgarh itself in Anju Lakra and Seema Singh, it was not difficult for Railways, looking for its 18th title in the last 20 editions, to emphasise its supremacy.

However, Chhattisgarh made a fight of it, as it reduced the lead to three points at 38-41. Railways rotated its players nicely, and it was Anju who took the game away from Chhattisgarh, as she came on court in the second half, after the Railways had taken a 48-38 lead at halftime.

The Chhattisgarh team lacked the height, but not the courage. It will take on Andhra Pradesh in its last league match for the second place in the group.

Delhi swamps TN

In the other group, the Delhi girls dominated Tamil Nadu to win 76-45. Skipper Divya Singh was once again the star with 29 points that included five three-pointers. However, the dependable Sheeba Maggon twisted her left ankle, an injury that may hamper the progress of last year's runner-up.

Delhi, which topped the group, will play Punjab in the quarterfinals. Kerala took the second position after taming Madhya Pradesh.

In the men's section, Punjab was stretched by an unfancied Haryana in a Group `A' contest, in which the teams were locked 44-44 at halftime.

Punjab then accelerated nicely to record its third victory in as many matches, even as it helped Haryana to its third straight defeat, the same plight as Karnataka in the group.

The results:

Men (super league):

Group `A': Punjab 94 (Talwinder Singh 24, Parminder Singh 22, Harminder Singh 20) bt Haryana 84 (Manoj 29, Parveen 21, Pav Maan 16).

Group `B': Kerala 109 (Subash J. Shenoy 33, V. Vivek 22, Sunny Thomas 16, K. Harish 14) bt AP 83 (Nihal Yadav 24, Lijju Abraham 16, S. Prasad 16, Shiva Prasad Reddy 11); Services 92 (Subash Chander 18, Faizal Ahmed 15, Dilip Kumar 14, Peter John 12) bt Rajasthan 69 (Mod Singh 24, Lokesh Yadav 17, Bhagwan Singh 12); Railways 93 (Trideep Rai 24, Riyazuddin 22, Mihir Pandey 15, Ranjeet Singh 12) bt Services 61 (Phool Singh 15, Tinu Joseph 15, Peter John 11).

Qualifying knock-out: M.P. bt Uttar Pradesh 73-64; Jharkhand bt Maharashtra 105-35; Qualification placing: M.P. bt Jharkhand 51-42.

Women (super league):

Group `A': Railways 99 (Ivy Cherian 18, Anju Lakra 16, P. Anitha 15, Sofi Sam 13, K. Manisha 11) bt Chhattisgarh 70 (Kawaljeet Kaur 21, Bharti Netam 16, M. Pushpa 14); AP 71 (Jetty Jose 29, A.B. Binu 11, M. Deepa 10, V. J. Anne 10) bt Maharashtra 49 (Menaka Antony 11, G. Meenakshi Rao 10).

Group `B': Delhi 76 (Divya Singh 29, L.S. Savitha 13, Asha Hegde 10) bt TN 45 (N. Shyamala 20, Adthirai 10); Kerala 53 (P. Lajitha 15, Ligi George 11, Simi Jose 11) bt M.P. 38 (Nanda Jain 18).

Qualifying knock-out: HP bt Haryana 60-55; Punjab bt U.P. 64-16; Qualification placing: Punjab bt HP 84-44.

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