New Delhi, Feb 26 (IANS): Uttarakhand opened their campaign in the 64th Senior National Men’s Basketball Championships with a narrow 68-62 win over Indian Railways at the at Thyagaraj Stadium here Wednesday.
Amritpal Singh with 25 points top scored for the defending champions while Riyaz Uddin and Yadwinder Singh added 13 and 12 respectively.
For the Railways, Gagandeep Singh top scored with 20 points while Prakesh Mishra had 10.
Indian Railways had the better start of the two teams, rushing to a 13-6 lead. Uttarakhand, however, came back strongly to tie the first quarter at 15-all.
The defending champs outscored their opponents 13 to 11 in the second to take a 28-26 lead.
In the topsy-turvy match, Indian Railways surged to 45-39 lead, dominating the third quarter.
In the final quarter, Uttarakhand scored 29 points to their opponents’ 17 to wrap up the match and register their first win in the tournament.
In other matches, Punjab romped to a 92-44 win over Andhra Pradesh while Services demolished Rajasthan 101-57.
Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Jharkhand were also victorious in their respective matches.
In the women’s category, Indian Railways continued their dominant run in the tournament with a convincing 68-40 win over West Bengal.
Assam, meanwhile, were unlucky as they lost to Bihar 50-51 thanks to an impressive performance in the final quarter by the latter.
Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu also ran out worthy winners in their respective opening matches.
Results
Men:
Punjab (Ranbir Singh 15, Amripal Singh 14, Gurvinder Singh 14, Jagdeep Singh 14) bt Andhra Pradesh (G.V.Reddy 13, Sri Ganesh patil 8) 92-44
Uttar Pradesh (Bobby Singh 12, Shyamvir Singh 11) bt Goa (Johan Branganga 9, Craig Maneab 8) 62-27
Haryana (Hemant 29, Pardeep 17, Deepak 15, Vikash 10) bt West Bengal (Chorlal Sharma 21, Manoj Kaswan 10) 86-61
Jharkhand (Shamshad Alam 16, Allen Peter 15, Vishal Bagh 10) bt Bihar (Yogesh Kumar 15, Manvendra 13, Abhish Pratap Singh 12) 64-45
Services (Gopal Ram 17, S M Settu 16, Dalip Kumar 13, Narender Grewal 11, Jairam 11, Manu Thomas 10) bt Rajasthan (Prashant Singh 22, Vinod Kumar 10) 101-57
Madhya Pradesh (Harendra S.Tomer 16, Syed Anam Ali 13, Christopher S.Minhas 11) bt Mizoram (Henry L.Ramneaihawn 14, P.B.Vanlalmuana 10) 69-52
Uttarakhand (Amritpal Singh 25, Riyaz Uddin 13, Yadwinder Singh 12) bt Indian Railways (Gagandeep Singh 20, Prakesh Mishra 10) 68-62
Women:
Indian Railways (Anju Lakra 13, Manisha Dange 12, Krishnan Radha 12, S Kokila 12) bt West Bengal (S Oraon 11, S Tudu 8) 68-40
Andhra Pradesh (E. Joyti 30, M.Gayathri 22, Jincy Joseph 17) bt Himachal Pradesh (Balwinder 30, Munisha 10) 75-60
Punjab (Nagma Mirza 16, Kirandeep Kaur 15, Harjeet Kaur 13, Nirmal Kaur 13) bt Madhya Pradesh (Jhilik Roy 24, Sakshi Pandey 15) 79-59
Rajasthan (Manisha Meena 18, Anita Meena 13, Usha Chouhan 10) bt Chandigarh (Simi Singh 11, Karamjeet Kaur 7) 61-26
Tamil Nadu (Appoorva Muralinath 26, Soniya Joy 14, R. Ramya 14) bt Maharashtra (Sonu M.Saji 6, Keeny Susan lalu 5) 63-20
Bihar (G.Satya Saraswati 31, Arti Singh 12) bt Assam (Laxmi Kumari 14, Smitali Saikai 8, Punam Sahani 7) 51-50
Uttar Pradesh (Niharika 16, Preeti Kumari 11) bt Haryana (Pooja 14) 50-26
