Thaindian News

Chennai, Dec 18 (IANS) The Punjab men’s team, third in the previous championship, overcame a fighting Uttarakhand 78-66 for their second win to remain on course for a berth in the knock-out stage of the 62nd senior National basketball championship here Sunday.

Leading 41-19 at the break, Punjab, who had beaten last year’s runners-up Services late Saturday night, just about held off Uttarakhand’s second half surge.

Much of Punjab’s domination was in the first two quarters before Uttarakhand came up with a strong fightback on resumption when they drew the third quarter 19-19 and took the fourth 18-28. However, they had left too much to do and eventually crashed to defeat.

For Punjab, Jagdeep Singh (19) topped the scorers chart while Trideep Rai (23) played an inspired game for Uttarakhand.

Punjab have two more matches in hand, against lower-ranked Chattisgarh and Delhi, and stand an excellent chance to top their group.

Services, who barely scraped past Chattisgarh 70-66 on the opening day, had no answer to Punjab who touched top form on Saturday and would need to pull up their socks to progress far in the competition.

In the women’s section, hosts Tamil Nadu also recorded two wins, defeating Kerala 68-64 and Andhra Pradesh 72-61 while champions Indian Railways swamped Madhya Pradesh 106-38.

The results (preliminary league):

MEN (Level 1) - Group B: Punjab 78 (Jagdeep Singh 19, Amjyot Singh 17, Talwinder Singh 14, Amritpal Singh 10) bt Uttarakhand 66 (Trideep Rai 23, Murali Krishna R 14, Anoop Mukkanniyil 14, Desraj 11). Ht: 41-19.

Punjab 96 (Jagdeep Singh 21, Talwinder Singh 14) bt Services 69 (Narnder 23, D.Kumar 11). Ht: 45-32.

Delhi (Vipin 20, Vinay Kaushin 19, Parveen Doval 12) bt Chhattishgarh 58 (Ajay Pal 19, Ashutosh 14). Ht: 29-30.

Level 2 - Group C: Jammu and Kashmir 54 (Amit Bharti 18, Iqbal 17) bt Chandigarh 42 (Ravi 16), Ht: 24-13.

Chandigarh 67 (Pawan Kumar 20, Syed Aziz Ulhaq 19) bt West Bengal 48 (Surojit Dey 14, SK Naim Hossain 8). Ht: 23-20.

Group D: Karnataka 61 (Aravind 19, Jijin K.Joseph 12, Srinivasa Naik 9) bt Jharkhand 41 (Pankaj Rathee 9, Rakesh Sangwan 7). Ht: 32-22.

Karnataka 76 (Karan Joshua 14, Srinivasa Naik 14, Aravind 12) bt Gujarat 35 (Harpal Singh Naghela 15). Ht: 45-16.

Group E: Odisha 59 (Sanjeev K Behura 15, Ashok K.Nayak 11, Ashish R.Behera 11) bt Madhya Pradesh 30 (Kirti Goswami 12, Vikas Singh 10). Ht: 37-19.

Group F: Assam 63 (Vinod 18, Virender 15) bt Pondicherry 37 (Kevin Varghese 13, Naveen Kanth 10). Ht: 49-26.

Haryana 59 (Deepak Rathee 18, Hemant Sheoran 13, Vikas Mor 10) bt Maharashtra 57 (Akshay Bhosale 13, Ashish Dubey 12). Ht: 19-19.

WOMEN (Level 1) - Group A: Punjab 66 (Kiranjit Kaur 31, Ranwinder Kaur 15) bt Maharashtra 62 (Shireen Limaye 24, Aviya Dharave 11). Ht: 31-29.

Indian Railways 106 (Renjini Peter 19, Anjulakra 17) bt Madhya Pradesh 38 (Manisha Pawar 12). Ht: 60-14.

Group B: Tamil Nadu 68 (Apoorva.M 13, N Meenalatha 13, M Adhiray 10) bt.Kerala 64 (Jeena PS 17, Athira.M 13). Ht: 38-27.

Delhi 76 (Pratima Singh 25, Prashanti Singh 18) bt Rajasthan 14. Ht: 44-7.

Tamil Nadu 72 (Alagutamil Mozhi 19, Neena Hareendran 19, Apporva Mulinath 16) bt Andhra Pradesh 61 (Aashna Ujwaney 23, Manda Meshram 17). Ht: 26-22.

Level 2 - Group C: Himachal Pradesh 44 (Naina 13, Samrithi Thakur 10, Jyoti 8) bt Haryana 22 (Renu Rathee 10, Sarita Hooda 10). Ht: 23-13.

Group D: Gujarat 45 (Sarika Bhagora 12, Aziza Kazi 9) bt Jammu and Kashmir 15 (Radhika Choudhary 5, Monika Zutshi 5). Ht: 24-10.

Group E: Pondicherry 60 (RS Karpaagam 16, M Manjula 11, L Sreedevi 10, S Kavitha 8) bt Odisha 23 (Namrata Singh 11, Sitamani Tudu 4). Ht: 29-15.

Group F: Uttarakhand 38 (Aishwarya Nandini 13, Bhawana 10, Sonika 9) bt. Bihar 21 (Aprajeeta Pandey 8, Aarti Singh 7). Ht: 19-10.

West Bengal 60 (Priyanka Kumari 15, Madhu Kumari 11) bt Assam 21 (Laxmi Kumari 7, Mamoni Begum 5). Ht: 34-8.