Favourites Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu eased into the semi-finals of the 64th National Basketball Championship at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex here Monday.
Defending champions Uttarakhand beat Kerala 93-74 with India international Amritpal Singh bagging an unbelievable 50 points. Kerala fought hard but couldn't keep pace with Amritpal's precise shooting from the inside. Monish Nilson added 19 points for Kerala while Jomon Jose and Basil Philip chipped in with 15 and 16, respectively.
Tamil Nadu, who finished top of Group A, romped to an 87-54 victory over Karnataka in another quarter-final. Tamil Nadu led from start-to-finish and overpowered a hapless Karnataka defence.
Karnataka were at touching distance till the end of the second period with the score 44-34 in favour of Tamil Nadu. However, Tamil Nadu switched on the afterburners and opened up a big lead in the next two quarters.
In an earlier game, Services stunned Railways 104-72 to move into the semi-finals. Gopal Ram was in fine form, leading the scoring charts with 29 points. Jairam bagged a double-double with 18 points and 14 rebounds as Services romped home in the first, second and fourth quarters.
Railways, who had finished behind Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand in Group A, failed to get the fluency going and were poor in defence. Ankur Anand Singh (21 points) was the only player to put the Services defence under any kind of pressure. Hirendra Rathore gave away six fouls but managed to win as many rebounds under the basket.
In the women's category, Delhi routed Punjab 111-58 to book their berth in the semis. Punjab were leading 19-15 at the end of the first quarter but Delhi picked up their game and led 43-28 at half time.
Delhi then scored heavily in the third and fourth quarters to leave their opponents far behind. Prashanti Singh scored 29 points (four 3-pointers), Raspreet Sidhu 23, Pratima Singh 16 and Madhu Kumari added 12 to power Delhi to a century score. Nagma Mirza scored 23 points while Nirmal Kumar and Kiranjit Kaur finished with 13 and 11, respectively, for Punjab.
Results:
Women's Pre-Quarterfinals: Karnataka (Naneneetha P.U. 29, Kruthika Lakshman 16, Rohini R. John 11) bt Andhra Pradesh (M. Gayathri 24, N. Senha Priya 18, Jilina Jose 7) 84-72 (24-26, 16-9, 23-22, 21-15)
Tamil Nadu (Srividhya 14, Vyishali 12) bt Uttar Pradesh (Radha 12, Niharika 7) 59-21 (19-9, 12-0, 13-6, 15-6)
Men: Karnataka (Dheeraj Shetty 21, Arvind 21, Rajesh 18, Abhilash J. 8) bt Rajasthan (S. Partha Sarathi 16, Kamran Khan 14, Harshvardhan 14, Jaynesh Patel 12) 90-77 (26-19, 19-10, 27-21, 18-27)
Haryana (Hemant Sheoran 31, Deepak Rathi 10, Vikas Mor 8) bt Chhattisgarh (Raranpal Singh 21, Shyam Sunder 10, Sameer Rai 8) 75-59 (22-12, 14-16, 23-14, 16-17)
Women's Quarterfinals:
Chhattisgarh (Kavita 24, Bharti Herati 14, Farhat Anjum 14, Seeam Singh 10) bt Kerala (Neenumol P.S. 15, Jeena P.S. 10, Stephy Nixon 10) 76-46 (14-18, 13-7, 21-14, 28-7)
Delhi (Prashanti Singh 29, Raspreet Sidhu 23, Pratima Singh 16, Madhu Kumari 12) bt Punjab (Nagma Mirza 23, Nirmal Kumar 13, Kiranjit Kaur 11) 111-58 (15-19, 28-9, 30-15, 38-15)
Railways (M. Pushpa 15, Smruthi Radhakisnan 15, Geetu Anna Jose 14, Anju Lakra 11) bt Tamil Nadu (R. Alagu 19, Appoora Muralin 14) 90-50 (27-14, 22-14, 23-4, 17-18)
Men: Services (Gopal Ram 29, Narender Grewal 21, Jairam 18, Joginder Singh 13) bt Railways (Ankur Anand Singh 21, Prakesh Mishra 12, Hirendra S. Rahtoree 10) 104-72 (26-18, 31-14, 25-29, 22-10)
Uttarakhand (Amritpal Singh 50, Yadwinder Singh 17,) bt Kerala (Monish Nilson 19, Jomon Jose 15, Basil Philip 16) 93-74 (21-21, 27-17, 22-19, 23-17)
