Wednesday, Mar 13, 2002
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Basketball
The Tamil Nadu men's team, which retained the National basketball championship at Ludhiana on Tuesday. Right: The Railways women's team, which also retained the title. - Photos: Sandeep Saxena
LUDHIANA, MARCH 12. The Tamil Nadu men performed a hat-trick by winning the title with a 86-76 margin against host Punjab, after leading 49-27 at halftime, in the Airtel 52nd National basketball championship at the Guru Nanak Sports Complex here on Tuesday. Tamil Nadu had won the title in the last two editions in Delhi and Bangalore. Taming the lion in its den, especially after succumbing to the same rival in the National Games final at the same venue recently, was a sweet experience for Tamil Nadu which richly deserved the trophy for its entertaining display. Even as the atmosphere was vibrant with support for the Punjab team, it was a shock for the host, as Tamil Nadu raced to a 21-6 lead in the first quarter, with sure shots and smart dispossession of the rivals. With M.S. Shabeer Ahmed bottling up Parminder Singh and Moses Jeevananth exasperating Gagnesh Kumar, the job became easy at the start for Tamil Nadu. The rest of the Punjab players just ran around in circles without getting anywhere. R. Sivashankar and Moses took up the responsibility of keeping the scoreboard moving briskly in the company of Robinson, and that saw Tamil Nadu dominate the first half. Punjab was able to make a fight of it in the second half, much to the jubilation of the spectators, mainly because Gagnesh broke through the shackles to score 19 of his 22 points. Swaraj Singh could not put a foot wrong, as the short sardar captured the imagination of the capacity crowd on entry in the second half with 19 points. The two Punjab men were so good that the team was able to reduce the gap to three points at 68-71, after Punjab had trailed by 25 points at 21-46. However, Robinson and Shabeer kept their heads up when it mattered to score invaluable baskets for Tamil Nadu in the climax. With three minutes left on the clock the gap was only four points (75-79), but Punjab was allowed to score only one more point, a free throw conversion by Parminder Singh, who was a pale shadow of himself this day. Moses, Robinson and Shabeer put the finishing touches by scoring seven points between them in that period, letting the clock tick away with their controlled play. The women's final was predictably one- sided, as Railways retained its crown, winning the title for the 16th time, with a 96-63 triumph over Kerala, which won its only title in 1984 in Cuttack.. The question was the margin this day, and the Kerala women could not even match the second string Railways team in the second half after having wrested the initiative with a 55-31 lead at halftime. Skipper Sheeba Maggon, Renjini Jose and Ivy Cherian proved too good for the Kerala girls, and the rest like Arnika Gujar, B. S. Shyla, Manisha Kaprekar and Bindu Koroth used their chances to improve the Railways' total. Bronze for Railways men, TN women In the matches for the bronze medal, Railways men edged past Services 89-84, while the Tamil Nadu women overwhelmed Punjab 84-58. The results: Men (final): Tamil Nadu 86 (S. Robinson 27, Moses Jeevananth 15, R. Sivashankar 14, M.S. Shabeer Ahmed 11) bt Punjab 76 (Gagnesh Kumar 22, Swaraj Singh 19, Parminder Singh jr. 15, Parminder Singh 12). Third place: Railways 89 (Ram Kumar 27, Ranjit Singh 25, Mahendra Singh 15, Mohammed Islauddin 13) bt Services 84 (Phool Singh 22, Peter John 17, Sweeto Francis 16, Gagandeep Singh 13). Women (final): Railways 96 (Renjini Jose 21, Ivy Cherian 20, Sheeba Maggon 18) bt Kerala 63 (V.P. Sini 15, Ambili Thomas 14, M. Sindhu 13). Third place: Tamil Nadu 84 (N. Shyamala Suguna Jothi 28, Vidya Sridharan 22, Sharmili P. Mathew 15) bt Punjab 58 (Kiranjit Dhillon 19, Savitri Guleria 10).
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