CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu men and women’s team made it to the semifinals of the senior National basketball championships at the Nehru Indoor stadium here on Friday.
The men’s side cruised past Kerala 81-57 in their quarterfinal clash, while the Tamil Nadu women’s team had to dig deep before beating their counterparts from Punjab 73-70 to make the semifinals. In the last-four stage, Tamil Nadu men play Indian Railway.
Tamil Nadu men took little time to stamp their authority in the encounter. The opening quarter saw Tamil Nadu take a 25-12 lead. From thereon, the home team kept the pressure on their opponents to register a comfortable win. Muin Bek led from the front for Tamil Nadu with 17 points and was well-supported by teammates A Arvind (15) and Jeevanathan (10).
Tamil Nadu women began with a healthy 22-13 lead by the end of the first quarter.
The subsequent quarter saw Punjab deliver a much-improved show as they trailed the hosts 30-31. Punjab women called the shots in the third quarter and got a 59-52 lead at the end of it. However, the home team turned things around in the final quarter to seal their place in the last-four stage of the competition.
R Sruthy (21 points), A Ashmitha (16) and skipper J Ishwarya (10) were the leading contributors for Tamil Nadu. They next take on defending champions Indian Railway in the last-four stage encounter on Saturday.
Results (all quarterfinals)
Men: Indian Railway 90 bt Services 68; Karnataka 82 bt Haryana 65; Punjab bt Uttarakhand 90-64; Tamil Nadu 81 bt Kerala 57
Women: Tamil Nadu 73 bt Punjab 70; Telangana 72 bt Madhya Pradesh 64; Kerala 83 bt Karnataka 79; Indian Railway 94 bt Assam 36
Semifinals line-up
Men: Tamil Nadu vs Indian Railway, Punjab vs Karnataka
Women: Tamil Nadu vs Indian Railway, Kerala vs Telangana
