Punjab dethroned defending champion Tamil Nadu 94-80 in the men’s final of the 72nd National basketball championship at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Indoor Hall on Sunday.
Amritpal Singh and Gurbaz Singh Sandhu took the match away from Tamil Nadu’s grasp by scoring 63 points between them.
Punjab led 44-39 at half time and Tamil Nadu came back strongly in the third quarter by scoring 32 points, but Punjab controlled the contest to emerge champion.
In the women’s final, Railways outplayed Kerala 110-64 after leading 48-22 at half time. The last quarter was most entertianing as the teams scored 59 points, but Railways had done enough to sail to the trophy.
Gurbaz of Punjab and and M Pushpa Railways were adjudged the “most valuable players” of the championship.
Champion Punjab, National basketball | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The results:
Men (final): Punjab 94 (Amritpal Singh 32, Gurbaz Singh Sandhu 31, Amjot Singh 14) bt Tamil Nadu 80 (A Aravind 21, Jeevanathan 20, Munin Bek 11).
Third place: Railways 88 (Sahil 32, Palpreet Singh 18, Rakesh Singh 10, Ratan Singh 10) bt Rajasthan 71 (Lokendra Singh 16, Deepak Choudhary 13, Piyush Meena 12).
Women (final): Railways 110 (Dharshini 19, M Pushpa 15, Madhu Kumari 11) bt Kerala 64 (Jayalakshmi 17, Anu Maria 13).
Third place: Delhi 74 (Raspreet Sidhu 27, Garima Gosain 18, Kritika 15) bt Karnataka 53 (Pavani Sangwan 15, Roshni John 12, Lopamudra 10).
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