Date:08/10/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/10/08/stories/2006100809441600.htm

Sport - Basketball

Geethu propels S. Railway into final

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Geethu Anna Jose stood out not just physically with her six foot two inch wiry frame, but figuratively as well, as the 21-year-old scored a whopping 46 points in powering Southern Railway past South East Central Railway 67-50 for a berth in the final of the 34th all-India Master Prithvi Nath Sharma memorial basketball tournament at the Ajmal Khan Park here on Saturday.

The cheerful lass from Kottayam who has had a 75-day stint with Ringwood Hawks Club in Melbourne recently emphasised her energy and expertise to clinch a crucial victory for the team. With the match virtually being a semifnal, as the winner was moving into the final in the five-team round-robin league behind Western Railway, it was a close contest till the eventual winner ran away to a thumping finish.

South East Central Railway fought well, especially through the efforts of Anju Lakra and Seema Singh who scored 20 points each with more than half of them through three-pointers, but Southern Railway looked to have reserved its best for the final quarter.

Leading by four points at the end of the third quarter, after having dominated the first half at 34-23, Southern Railway accelerated to an emphatic finish, with Geethu rising to the occasion by slotting 17 of the 23 points that her team scored in the last ten minutes.

Southern Railway played a purposeful game, stung as it was by its only reversal at the hands of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) on Friday, when the former ran away with a smart effort in the last 30 seconds, after the teams had been on par.

Keen tussle

``We had beaten Western Railway in the league, but we expect a hard fight in the final,'' said Geethu, who was surprised but understandably quite pleased with her collection of points. She was quick to acknowledge the overwhelming support she had from her teammates, Meena Latha, M. Adhirai, captain Shyamala Suguna Jothi and Sharmili Sebastian.

The results: Men: League: Punjab 79 (Jagdeep 33, Gagandeep 16) bt North Western Railway 61 (Narendra Hooda 19, Sandeep Janu 14); Indian Army 68 (Arockia Babu 15, S. Subbaiah 15) bt Western Railway 60 (Riyazuddin 25, Arvind Rawat 14).

Women: Southern Railway 67 (Geethu Anna Jose 46) bt South East Central Railway 50 (Anju Lakra 20, Seema Singh 20); MTNL 81 (Prabhjot Kaur 23, Prashanti Singh 19, Asha Hegde 18) bt India Young Women 77 (Raspreet Sidhu 14).