Kerala women broke no sweat in defeating Goa 35-17. Goa was heavily over-matched both in terms of size and skill against the undefeated Kerala team, who were the runners-up in the senior nationals earlier in the year
The Goan Network
Panaji
Fighting for the second spot in Group B, the Telangana and Karnataka women faced each other on Friday afternoon at the 30th Federation Cup Basketball championships at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee stadium on Friday.
Karnataka’s young team got off to a quick start leading 13-9 at the end of the first quarter. But the experienced Telangana side, all employed with the South Central Railways based in Hyderabad, got their offensive rhythm going in the second quarter.
R Ramya (19 points) and P Divya (18 points) helped Telangana outscore Karnataka 37 to 14 in the second and third quarters and build a huge lead.
The entire Telangana side crashed the offensive glass, pulling down 28 offensive rebounds leading to 14 second chance points. On the defensive end, Telangana pressured Karnataka’s ball handlers forcing 23 turnovers. M Gayathri from Telangana had 5 steals to go with 15 points and 4 assists. Apart from Ranjitha (17 points), no other player got into double digits for Karnataka as Telangana sealed an easy 66-44 victory and advanced to the semi-finals.
Later, the mighty Kerala team played against hosts Goa. Not surprisingly, Kerala women broke no sweat in defeating Goa 35-17. Goa was heavily overmatched both in terms of size and skill against the undefeated Kerala team, who were the runners up in the senior nationals earlier in the year. After a 15-2 first quarter start, Kerala emptied its bench, who played the rest of the game and cruised to the win. Alisha J was the highest scorer for Goa with 5 points. For Kerala, Elizabeth and Kavitha scored 8 points each. Kerala will now face Telangana in the semifinals.
Defending champions ONGC, Dehradun took on a confident young Vijaya Bank team in the evening. Both teams were yet to drop a game entering this contest. Vijaya Bank’s international players point guard Rajesh Uppar and forward Aravind both had a rough game, finding it difficult to score against the ONGC defense. Uppar struggled to penetrate and create shots for his teammates. Aravind was stifled around the basket by the ONGC frontline. For ONGC, India captain Vishesh Bhrighuvanshi was the offensive catalyst for his team ending up with an efficient 17 points and 4 assists.
Veteran ONGC guard Trideep Rai was on fire from beyond the arc connecting on all 5 of his 3-point attempts. ONGC established a 46 to 18 lead at halftime and used their bench through most of the second half to coast to a 64-32 blowout victory.
Results
Men
Group A: ONGC, Dehradun (Trideep Rai 20, Vishesh Bhrighuvanshi 17, Riyazuddin 7) bt Karnataka (Roby Thomas 11, Navin Raj 7) 64-32 (20-9, 26-9, 10-7, 8-7)
Group B: North-western Railways, Jaipur (Prashant Singh 33, Abdul Rahim Khan 20, Jainesh Patel 16) bt Kerala Police (Jijo Thankachan 22, Shreejith Nair 21, Jomon Jose 19) 91-88 (22-17, 14-30, 34-18, 21-23) Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai (Pratham Singh 22pts and 10rbs, Vineeth Mathew 17pts and 15rbs, Siva Balan 11pts 5asts 5stls) bt Army Red (Mayur Bhat 22, Ramesh K 10) 71-47 (18-9, 19-17, 20-7, 14-14)
Women
Group A: Chhattisgarh (Poonam Chaturvedi 65pts and 23 rbs, Saranjeet Kaur 15, Riya B 11) bt Maharashtra (Manisha Dange 29, Sruthi Menon 26) 107-82 (33-16, 25-25, 28-19, 21-22)
Kerala (Elizabeth H 8, Kavitha J 8, Neenumol PS 6) bt Goa (Alisha J 5, Shaheen R 4) 35-17 (15-2, 3-5, 10-4, 7-6)
Group B: South-east Central Railways, Bilaspur (Sangeeta Kaur 23, Akansha Singh 13pts and 17rbs, Nikita Godamkar 9) bt Delhi (Monika Vats 12, Sahiba 10pts and 11rbs) 62-47 (17-20, 13-6, 20-13, 12-8) Telangana (Ramya R. 19, Palanivel Divya 18, M. Gayathri 15) bt Karnataka (Ranjitha KR 17, Chandhana G 6, Supriya MS 5) 66-44 (9-13, 22-10, 15-4, 20-17)
