Date:02/05/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/05/02/stories/2004050203701800.htm

Sport - Basketball

Hyderabad, Krishna girls in semifinals

By Our Special Correspondent

RAJAHMUNDRY, MAY 1. Anantapur, Kurnool, Krishna and Hyderabad girls advanced to the semifinals of the Andhra Pradesh state junior basketball championships at the A.P. Paper Mills township court here on Saturday.

The smaller-built Ranga Reddy girls gave their taller rivals from Krishna a tough time, circumventing the disadvantage through bounce passes in the vicinity of the `D.' So did the former resort to outside shooting, albeit with limited success. Trailing quite a bit initially, Ranga Reddy bridged the gap to 21-24 by the end of the third quarter, mostly through the playmaking skills of Seetha Laxmi, whose personal contribution was 10 points. Krishna counter-attacked and quite effectively too in the last quarter, thus establishing their superiority. Standing out in the coastal side's campaign was a hook shot by Asha Jyothi.

Hyderabad's two pivots were boxed in by the smaller West Godavari defenders. The defending champion's ball possession was poor too. The early fight put up by the losing side was not much in evidence in the last two quarters, paving the way for the holder's re-entry into the last four stage.

In the boys prequarter-finals, Sankar Rao kept up the good work for Srikakulam, this time logging 14 ponts in his side's 34-10 trouncing of Nalgonda.

To mark May Day, a cultural programme was put up by the host company's union.

The results:

Girls:

Quarterfinals: Anantapur 29 (Sujatha 14, Sri Devi 8) bt Adilabad 12; Kurnool 35 (Sandhya 13, Rajyalaxmi 7) bt East Godavari 4; Krishna 44 (Poojitha 11, Rachana 10) bt Ranga Reddy 33 (Seethalaxmi 10); Hyderabad 32 (Sandhya 10, Lavanya 11) bt West Godavari 23.

Boys:

Pre-quarter-finals: Anantapur 46 (Peera 12, Madan Mohan Reddy 12, Ali 8) bt Guntur 27 (Satish 9); West Godavari 38 (Satish Kumar 12, Krishna Reddy 9) bt Prakasam 18; Srikakulam 34 (Sankar Rao 14, Prasanna 10) bt Nalgonda 10; East Godavari 39 (Venkatesh 16, Swamy 8) bt Ranga Reddy 20 (Suresh Sai 7).

League matches: Nizamabad 24 (Saradhi 10, Naresh Reddy 10) bt Warangal 14; Adilabad 26 bt Mahabubnagar 12.