The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Rlys. women maul AP

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Sunday, Dec 23, 2007
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Sport - Basketball

Rlys. women maul AP

G. Prasad

PUDUCHERRY: Defending champion Indian Railways and Delhi had easy outings on Saturday, as they posted comfortable wins in the women’s super league fixtures of the 58th National basketball championship here.

In a Group A match, Indian Railways whipped Andhra Pradesh 83-19. Andhra women found the going really tough from the beginning, as they could not match the precision and speed of their superior rivals. Railways cagers went on a scoring spree to notch up 50 points against Andhra’s 17 at the halfway mark. The hapless Andhra women could manage only two points in the last two quarters, as Railways went on to score a thumping victory.

Second loss for TN

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu suffered its second successive defeat in the championship losing 42-75 to Delhi. The Tamil Nadu hoopsters, who went down fighting against Chhattisgarh on Friday, were error-prone, missing even easy chances.

Down 35-69 at the end of the third quarter, the possibilities of Tamil Nadu making a comeback was almost sealed. Divya Singh (20 points) was the star performer for the winner.

The tournament was officially inaugurated on Saturday evening by R. Radhakrishnan, Puducherry Assembly Speaker.

The results:

Men: Qualifying League: Group D: Madhya Pradesh 76 (Hawa Singh 14) bt Goa 23.

Group E: Chhattisgarh 66 (Prashanth Singh 27) bt Mizoram 33 (Zobura 11); Uttar Pradesh 62 (Vishesh 20) bt Jammu and Kashmir 42 (Sunil Bajaj 10).

Group F: Jharkhand 59 (Abilash 18) bt Maharashtra 50 (Sameer 10).

Women: Super League: Group A: Indian Railways 83 (Karpekar 23, Natam 16, Sam 15) bt Andhra Pradesh 19.

Group B: Delhi 75 (Divya Singh 20, Sheeba Meggam 13, Prashanthi Singh 11) bt Tamil Nadu 42 (Kokila 10); Chhattisgarh 76 (Aakansa 21, M. Pushpa 14, Saritha 13) bt Maharashtra 44 (Renjusha Mathew 27).

Qualifying League: Group C: Kerala 61 (Sonia Joseph 14, Lity Mathew 10, Anjana 10) bt Jharkhand 16 (Swetha Singh). Group D: West Bengal 49 (Rima Modal 16, Priyanka Kumari 15) bt Haryana 26 (Nina 11, Kavitha 11); Madhya Pradesh 54 (Ritu 18, Prasana 12) bt Orissa 25 (Beranika10). Group E: Gujarat 25 (Aziza Kazi 11) bt Uttarakhand 23. Group F: Chandigarh 43 bt Goa 16; Chandigarh 49 (Swetha Dutta 19, Shanthi Sharma 10) bt Rajasthan 36.