Captain Kumar Varma came to the rescue as Andhra Pradesh warded off a late surge by Puducherry to triumph 115-107 in a men’s match of the South Zone basketball qualifiers on Monday.
Later, Tamil Nadu men and women began their campaign on a rousing note. The men thrashed Telangana 107-45 while the women scored a thumping 103-35 win over Andhra Pradesh.
Leading in all three quarters — thanks to Aravind Varma’s fine show, AP was taken aback by Puducherry’s counter-attack in the closing stages of the fourth and final quarter.
With four-and-a-half minutes remaining, Puducherry equalised at 105 after trailing by seven points. Chaitanya (25 points) scored eight points towards the end to guide AP to the finish line.
The results: Men: AP 115 (Intiyaz 28, Aravind Varma 20, Kumar Varma 25, Ronit 17) bt Puducherry 107 (Srikanth 25, Lavan 22, Gokul 22); TN 107 (Anantharaj 25, Muin Bek 14, Soorya 13) bt Telangana 45 (Santhosh 10). Women: TN 103 (Darshini 19, Aishwarya 16, Pratheba 11) bt Andhra Pradesh 35 (Dhana 11).
