Chandigarh (Sports Bureau)
Indian Railways women and Punjab men retained their trophies as they emerged champions in the 7oth Senior National Basketball Championship at Guru Nanak Dev Stadium in Ludhiana on Saturday.
Indian Railways defeated Kerala by 68-55 in the women's final. The two undefeated teams from the league phase finally faced off in the summit clash earlier this afternoon.
Indian Railways women started off well taking on the early lead as they ended the first quarter with 17-12 margin with Navneetha dominating the ring and ended up the first half with 33-25 . Kerala only dominated the second quarter and were able to reduce the lead 43-47 . Railways had multiple players with double figures. Sruthy Aravind played the captain's role and led the scoring for Railways with16 points and Shireen Limaye with15 ,Navneetha scoring 13 and Poonam Chathurvedi with 12. Forr Kerala Jeena PS made 23 and Stephy Nixon contributed 13 points.
Punjab anchored by professionals Amritpal Amjoth defeated Tamil Nadu 93-75 in the final after an evenly fought first half of 37-36. Harshpreet Singh Buller lead the scoring with 33 points followed by center Amritpal Singh with 24 points and 14 rebounds and Amjot making 15. For Tamil Nadu Moin Bek come up with 23 points and Jeevanathm with 20
Bronze for Uttarakhand men and MP Women
Nimma Doma Bhutia made all differenc for Madhya Pradesh as they scrape past Punjab with the score 73-69 to secure women bronze while Vishesh Brighuvnshi made it possible the bronze for Uttarakhand as they beat Indian Railway 75- 74
Results
Women (final): Indian Railways -68 (Sruthy Aravind 16, Shireen Limaye 15, Navaneetha PU 13, Poonam Chathurvedi 12, Madhukumari 10) bt Kerala-55 (Jeena PS 24, Stephy Nixon 15) (17-12,16-13,14-18,21-12).
Men (final):
Punjab-93 (Arshpreet Singh Buller 33, Amritpal Singh 24, Amjoth Singh19) bt Tamil Nadu-75(Muin Bek 23, Jeevanatham 20, Aravind Annadurai 13,Bala Shankar10) (16-20,21-16,30-23,26-16)
3-4 places match: Women: Madhya Pradesh-73 (Nimma Doma Bhutia 28,Namarata13,Norzom Bhutia 12,Anjali Dhasmana10) bt Punjab- 69(Anmol Preet Kaur20, HarismaranKaur18, RajandeepKaur13, SharnamJ11)(11-21,16-17,21-8,25-23).
Men: Uttarakhand-75 (Vishesh Brighuvanshi36ArjunSingh14,Yadwinder Singh13) bt Indian Railways-74(Sahil20,Rajan Sharma17,Lovneet Singh11) (13-20,19-13,19-22,24-19), 4th and 5th places match: Men: Kerala-76(Jishnu G Nair24,Grigo Mathew19,Sugeethnath17,Sarath AS11) bt Karnataka -58(Abhishek G19,M Harish18) (16-23,20-18,21-6,19-11)
Women: Karnataka-66(Chandana16,Lopamudra 11) bt Telengana-41(D Manasa11)(23-9,16-12,9-13,18-7) 7th and 8th places:
Men: Harayana-72(Vikrant29,MohitFuteala25) bt Services-71(SurenderpalSingh18,NikhilKumar12,Siva Saktivel10) (10-19,28-11,20-12,14-29).
Women: Maharastra-58(Suzanne Pinto24) bt Delhi-49(Nishita S14,Aparna Saini14) (15-13,17-13,8-16,18-7).