The Hindu : Sport / Basketball : Services, Punjab in quarterfinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 25, 2007
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Sport - Basketball

Services, Punjab in quarterfinals

G. Prasad

— Photo: T. SIngaravelou

ON TARGET: Sweeto Francis of Services baskets against Uttarakhand.

PUDUCHERRY: Sambhaji Kadam steered defending champion Services to a convincing 95-70 win over Uttarakhand in a men’s Group ‘A’ Super League fixture in the 58th National basketball championship here on Monday.

There was nothing much to separate the two sides at the end of the first quarter. Into the second, Kadam made repeated inroads into the rival area. Sweeto Francis gave the support Kadam was looking for and their effective combination made all the difference. Also Dalip Kumar picked up his shooting and at the half-way mark, Services gained a 45-31 advantage.

Good moves

Uttarakhand’s defence could have applied more pressure on Kadam, who was initiating some lovely moves. Trailing 57-70 at the end of the third quarter, Uttarakhand, which made a strong comeback against Assam in its previous fixture, tried hard to repeat the performance.

But its cagers failed to combine well during crucial moments. And Riyazuddin, one of the prolific scorers for Uttarakhand in the tournament, was not at his best.

Services continued the good show and went on to clinch the match and a place in the quarterfinals. Dalip top-scored with 26 points for the winner, while Trideep Rai managed 24 points for Uttarakhand.

In a Group ‘B’ Super League fixture, Punjab defeated Kerala 86-55 and entered the quarterfinals. Punjab hoopsters, who raced to a 15-2 lead in quick time, started committing mistakes in the latter part of the first quarter and gave a chance for Kerala to recover.

Kerala players used the opportunity and even led for a brief period in the second. But the whole complexion of the game changed, once Gagandeep Singh and Jagdeep Singh, found back their rhythm. Punjab will now meet Tamil Nadu on Tuesday, to decide the Group ‘B’ topper.

In the women’s section, Kerala and Karnataka made it to the quarterfinals from the qualifying league.

The results:

Men: Super League: Group ‘A’: Karnataka 86 (S. Naik 24, Tinu Joseph 19, Srinivas Gowda 11) bt Assam 61 (Vinod Hooda 23, Binod Choudhry 13); Services 95 (Dalip Kumar 26, Sweeto Francis 20, K. Vipin 15) bt Uttarakhand 70 (Trideep Rai 24, Shabeer Ahmed 16, Sridhar 12).

Group ‘B’: Punjab 86 (Jagdeep Singh 28, Gagandeep Singh 13, Dalwar 10) bt Kerala 55 (Eudurick Perera 15); Rajasthan 85 (Mahipal Singh 20, Mahendra Singh 16, Nand Lal 12) bt Chandigarh 65 (Bhupesh 19, Ashfaq Ahmed 17, Amrish Kumar 15).

Qualifying league: Andhra Pradesh 87 (P. Nagaraj 16, Tirupathy 13) bt Delhi 61 (Sivakumar 16, Hanny 10); Uttar Pradesh 90 (Amitesh Singh 19, Upendra Kumar 19, Arjun Singh 18) bt Madhya Pradesh 68 (Hawa Singh 25, Dharmender Singh 12).

Women: Pre-quarterfinals: Kerala 69 (Anjanna 24, Sonia Joseph 22) bt Uttar Pradesh 63 (Renumaurya 21, Anamika20); Karnataka 60 (Sonam 15, Reshma 12, Smitha 12) bt Madhya Pradesh 46 (Ritu 22).

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