In a thrilling quarter-final encounter, Delhi women defeated Punjab 111-58 to make a place in the semi-finals of the 64th National Basketball Championship being held at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex here today.
Punjab women were leading 19-15 at the end of first quarter but the confident Delhi team picked up its game and were leading 43-28 in half time. Delhi managed to score 30 and 38 in the 3rd and 4th quarter.
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. Nagma Mirza scored 23, Nirmal Kumar 13 and Kiranjit Kaur finished with 11 for Punjab.
Gopal Ram scored 29, Narender Grewal 21, Jairam 18 (14 Rebounds), Joginder Singh 13 (Three 3-pointers) and Services Men defeated Indian Railways 104-72 after leading 57-32 at half-time. Ankur Anand Singh scored 21, Prakesh Mishra 12 and Hirendra S Rahtoree finished with 10 for Indian Railways.
Defending champions Uttarakhand men and Indian Railways women have also qualified for the semi-finals, defeating Kerala 93-74 and Tamil Nadu 90-50, respectively.
In all 51 teams (27 men and 24 women) are participating in the country's top most competition played on league-cum-kockout basis.
