The Hindu : Sport : Services, Railways triumph

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 29, 2007
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Sport

Sport

Services, Railways triumph

G. Prasad

Both scored facile wins over Punjab and Delhi respectively

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

THE WINNERS: The triumphant Services team, which won the Todd Memorial Trophy for the 28th time.

PUDUCHERRY: Services men and Indian Railways women retained the Todd Memorial Trophy and Baslat Jha Trophy respectively at the 58th National basketball championship here on Friday.

The men’s final, which was supposed to be a high-voltage clash did not live up to the expectations. Services’ solid defence once again came to the fore as it defeated Punjab 82-67 to claim the title for the 28th time. Punjab players found it hard to contain Sambhaji Kadam, who helped Services hold an upper hand.

Sweeto Francis and S.M. Settu, both with four fouls apiece, didn’t penetrate much into the rival area in the final session, which brought about a slump in the Services scoring rate. Punjab shooters tried their best to use the opportunity to bring down the lead, but the Services defenders were in no mood to let the advantage slip away. Sambhaji Kadam scored from near the half-court line to finish off the match in style.

Comprehensive win

In the women’s final, Railways scored a comprehensive 95-74 victory over Delhi to clinch the Baslat Jha trophy for the 21st time. The latter made a good start, thanks to its forwards who kept the scoreboard ticking. The Delhi defence managed to bottle up Railways’ towering pivot Geethu Anna Jose and, at the end of the first quarter, it was down by just four points (14-18).

Delhi’s best moment came in the later part of the second quarter when it reduced the deficit to just a point. Prashanthi Singh spearheaded the fight-back, ably supported by experienced Divya Singh. Delhi’s hopes were crashed when Railways coach Sathya Prakash brought in another post player Geo Blessen after the break. Blessen and Geethu combo in the defence proved hard to crack. The duo also collected vital rebounds.

Railways extended its lead to 16 points at the end of the third session and from then on it never looked back. Geethu netted 33 points for the winner while Prashanthi Singh stood out for Delhi scoring 18 points.

Earlier in the day, Indian Railways men edged out Uttarakhand 105-95 to secure the third place while Chhattisgarh women beat Tamil Nadu 67-59 to clinch the third spot.

The results: Men: Final: Services 82 (S.M. Settu 30, Jairam Jatt 14, Sambhaji Khadam 11) bt Punjab 67 (Jagdeep Singh 14, Harminder Singh 14, Mahesh Mishra 11). Third place: Indian Railways 105 (Yadwinder Singh 36, Birendar Singh 16, Pethiraj 12) bt Uttarakhand 95 (Trideep Rai 31, Suresh Ranot 22, Murali Krishna 16). Classification matches: 5th & 6th: Karnataka w/o Tamil Nadu; 7th & 8th: Uttar Pradesh 45 (Vishesh Brige 15) bt Kerala 37 (Ratheesh 13).

Women: Final: Indian Railways 95 (Geethu Anna Jose 33, Geo Blessen 16, Seema Singh 15) bt Delhi 74 (Prashanthi Singh 18, Sheeba Maggon 17, Divya Singh 12). Third place: Chhattisgarh 67 (M. Pushpa 23, Aruna 14, Aakansha Singh 13) bt Tamil Nadu 59 (Nithya 22, Sunitha Suren 12).