Punjab men shocked Railways, and women trounce Tamilnadu

Jaipur, Jan 2 (UNI) Punjab stole the limelight in the 57th Senior National Basketball Championships as their men shocked defending champions Railways in a see-saw battle 88-82, while their women got past Tamil Nadu 64-55 in the quarter finals at the SMS Indoor hall here today.

In an another quarter finals tie, Kerala men proved too good for hosts Rajasthan as they prevailed over them comfortably by 104-82.

Uttaranchal trounced Chandigarh 102-84 and sailed in men's quarter final.

Dilawar Singh and Jagdeep were the star performers for Punjab men as they combined very well and capitalised on most of scoring oportunities which came their way. They were good enough in taking the rebounds too. Dilawar top-scored with 26 points followed by Jagdeep with 21. Railways, who trailed by only one point (40-41) at the half time, made desperate attempts, but luck did not favour them.

Riyazuddin-the consistant scorer for the Railwaymen in the tournament so far -- though performed well today also collecting 24 points alongwith Jasjot, who made 21, but to no avail.

The day actually belonged to Punjab as their women had to face little difficulty in trouncing Tamil Nadu by nine points after taking a lead of 27-23 at the lemon break.

Kiranjit Kaur and Paramjit Kaur accounted 20 and 16 points respectively for Punjab, while Mahalakshmi 15 and Sunitha Suren (8) were the main scorers for Tamil Nadu.

A brilliant performance by Manoj R helped Kerala dashed down the hopes of the home team as they beat them hands down by a convincing margin of 22 points after leading by 51-41 at the breather. Besides Manoj, Abhijit (17) and Anup (10) were the notable scorers for the winners. Mod Singh (24), Lokesh and Sandeep (14 each) were the main contributors for Rajasthan.

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