Maharashtra women got the better of Chhattisgarh 60-56 in a close encounter, while the Punjab eves overcame Tamil Nadu 79-59 at the 64th National Basketball Championship, here today.
Maharashtra gained the upper hand when they took a 29-19 lead at the end of two quarters. But Chhattisgarh put up a great show in the third period to narrow down the lead to 40-44.
In the final quarter, both teams matched each other but Maharashtra maintained their slight advantage till the end to bag their third win in Group B.
For Maharashtra, Shireen Limaye scored 20 points while Susan Kenny and Sona Saji contributed with 13 and 10 points respectively.
Seema Singh (22) and Deepa L (13) were the two-highest points-scorer for Chhattisgarh.
In another Group B fixture, Punjab's Kiranjit Kaur scored 33 points as she guided her side to an easy win over Tamil Nadu.
In the men's category, Indian Railways and Rajasthan had an easy outing as they trounced Chhattisgarh (80-58) and Andhra Pradesh (87-31) in their respective matches.
Results:
Men: Indian Railways (Hirendra S Rathore 22, Arjun Singh 10, Jaskaran Singh 8) bt Chhattishgarh (Ajay Pratap Singh 14, Sameer Rai 13, Karan Pal Singh 12) 80-58 (22-9, 20-10, 16-15, 22-24)
Rajasthan (Vinod Kumar 22, Jaynesh Patel 18, Kamran Khan 17, Harshvardhan Singh 12, Prashant Singh 10) bt Andhra Pradesh (Nihal Yadv 8, Shaik Bajid Basha 6) 87-31 (21-16, 24-2, 13-4, 29-9)
Women: Maharashtra (Shireen Limaye 20, Susan Kenny 13, Saji Sona 10) bt Chhattisgarh (Seema Singh 22, Deepa L 13) 60-56 (12-9, 17-10, 15-21, 16-16)
Punjab (Kiranjit Kaur 33, Harjeet Kaur 18, Nirmal Kaur 10) bt Tamil Nadu (Nath Murli 15, Soniya Joy 12) 79-59 (17-24, 14-12, 29-9, 19-14)
Karnataka (Kruthika Lakshman 26, Roshim Rose 14, Sagarika Shyam 14) bt West Bengal (Sukurmoni Oraom 21, Varsha Verma 15, Salma Devi 11) 75-67 (10-20, 17-16, 21-10, 27-21).
