Tamil Nadu advanced to the men’s semifinals of the Senior National basketball championship with a facile 82-50 victory over Gujarat on Thursday.
The favourite was hardly troubled against an over-matched Gujarat side, and held a healthy lead throughout the encounter. Tamil Nadu faces defending champion Uttarakhand in the last-four on Friday, in what should be an electric contest between two equally-matched sides.
Punjab, meanwhile, continued its merry march. A 104-77 rout of Kerala was achieved on the back of double-doubles from no less than three players — A. Bhullar (20 points, 10 rebounds), Gagandeep Gill (17, 14) and Ranbeer Singh (16, 10).
Kerala did hold a 39-38 advantage at half-time, but was blown away after the restart. Punjab will take on Services in the second semifinal.
In the women’s last-eight, Telangana cruised past Tamil Nadu 70-52. A tough Railways test, however, awaits Telangana in the semifinal.
The match of the day came when a gritty Delhi edged Chhattisgarh out 84-76. Tenacious defence and physical play took Chhattisgarh’s towering centre Poonam Chaturvedi off her rhythm, while Pratima Singh (36 points) and Prashanti Singh (24) breathed fire for Delhi in offence.
The results (Quarterfinals): Men: Uttarakhand 84 (Vishesh Bhrighuvanshi 26, Trideep Rai 22, Murali Krishna 15) bt Railways 64 (Himanshu Sharma 16, Raj Kalbhor 12); Services 89 (Narender Grewal 24, Joginder Singh 17, Jayram Jat 15) bt Karnataka 63 (Anil Kumar 20, Arvind Arumugam 12); Tamil Nadu 82 (Aravind Annadurai 15, Siva Balan 15, Prasanna Venkatesh 14) bt Gujarat 50 (D. Dhaval 10); Punjab 104 (T.J. Sahi 24, A. Bhullar 20, Gagandeep Singh 17, Ranbeer Singh 16, Gurvinder Gill 14, Harmandeep Singh 13) bt Kerala 77 (S. Robin 24, R. Manoj 21, Jishnu Nair 16).
Women: Telangana 70 (P. Divya 26, R. Ramya 19, Anusha Anto 12) bt Tamil Nadu 52 (R. Varshanandini 10); Delhi 84 (Pratima Singh 36, Prashanti Singh 24, Raspreet Sidhu 12) bt Chhattisgarh 76 (Poonam Chaturvedi 44, N. Bharti 11); Railways 80 (Rajapriyadarshini 14, Smruthi Radhakrishnan 13, Shruti Menon 13) bt WB 44 (D. Sanma 17, Anjana Dezy 11, Madhu Kumari 10); Kerala 58 (P.S. Jeena 10, P.S. Neenumol 10) bt Punjab 24 (Indu Kumari 12).
