CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu men had to dig deep before defeating Indian Railways 85-74 in the senior National basketball clash at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor stadium on Thursday. Tamil Nadu will be taking on Kerala in the quarterfinals on Friday.
Tamil Nadu didn’t have the smoothest of starts as they trailed their opponents 16-20 in the opening quarter. The home team pulled things back to take a slim lead of 38-37 in the subsequent quarter.
Indian Railways got back the control in the penultimate quarter as the scoreline read 63-57. However, it was Tamil Nadu that held their nerve in the final stages of the contest to seal the deal. For the winners, Arvind Kumar (29), A Aravind (19) and skipper Muin Bek (18) were the main contributors.
Tamil Nadu women had it easy as they defeated their counterparts from Madhya Pradesh 87-63. K Sathya (18), S Rajeshwari (13) and B Neeta (12) shone for the hosts. Tamil Nadu women will lock horns with Punjab in the last-eight stage of the tournament.
In a pulsating contest, Karnataka got the better of defending men’s champions Punjab 90-81. Karnataka got off the blocks with lead in the first two quarters. At the halfway mark in the clash, Karnataka led their opponents 54-41.
Punjab continued to push their opponents and were only trailing 70-73 after the third quarter. However, Karnataka upped the ante in the closing moments to seal the deal. Skipper Arvind led the show for Karnataka with 30 points while teammate Anil Kumar contributed with 22.
Quarterfinal line-up (men): Karnataka vs Haryana, Services vs Indian Railway, Punjab vs Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu vs Kerala; (Women): Indian Railway vs Assam, Kerala vs Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh vs Telangana, Tamil Nadu vs Punjab.
