JAIPUR: Kerala women suffered their third straight defeat and got the slap of relegation from the super league group A, which the Railways topped with an all-win record, in the 57th National basketball championship at the Sawai Man Singh indoor stadium here on Saturday.

In the crucial and final league match, Kerala played an error-filled game against Maharashtra. Litty Mathew managed just 14 points as Beena M. (29) and Manisha (22) led Maharashtra to an 82-47 win, and a second place finish in the group.

Kerala will now play in the qualifying league in the next year's championship.

Railways continued to wield the whip, trouncing Tamil Nadu 124-41. Shanti Marie top-scored with 26 points to leave Tamil Nadu in despair.

Group B was still wide open, though after two losses Madhya Pradesh is on the same path that Kerala took.

Services stakes claim

Men's group A has thrown open various probabilities. While the defending champion Railways enjoyed a well-deserved rest after a reverse against Kerala and a win against Delhi, Services made a strong claim to be the team to reckon with.

Jairam scored 29 points and did all the hard work to give Services an 86-73 win against an all-conquering Kerala. Phool Singh (14) and Dilip Varghese (13) chipped in as Kerala suffered its first defeat in the super league.

After virtually giving up against Kerala last evening from a position of strength, Uttaranchal finally scored its win. Playing against Delhi, Uttaranchal took a good lead early on, but Delhi rallied brilliantly through Sanjay and Sunil Kumar, who both scored 17 points. But Desraj was Uttaranchal's point man, scoring almost on every free throw in his score of 33.

Last year's runner-up, Punjab, was made to bite the dust for the second match in a row. Trideep Rai continued his scoring ways as Tamil Nadu edged ahead of Punjab 97-86 in an entertaining duel late in the evening.

The results:

Men: Super league: Group A: Services 86 (Jairam 29, Phool Singh 14, Dilip Varghese 13) bt Kerala 73 (Subhash 16, Vinit Ravi 13, Manoj 12, Abhilash 12); Uttaranchal 89 (Desraj 33, Murli 16, Suresh Kumar 12) bt Delhi 82 (Sanjay 17, Sunil Kumar 17, Shravan Kumar 15).

Group B: Tamil Nadu 97 (Trideep Rai 39, Sukaneshwar 19, Chandrasekhar 12) bt Punjab 86 (Yadvender 25, Gagandeep 22, Dilawar 12); Karnataka 96 (Rosham 26, Sanjay Raj 14) bt Madhya Pradesh 67 (Sukanta 21, Nitin 11).

Qualifying league: Group C: Haryana 77 (Sajeepa 17, Vikram 22, Sanjeev 14) bt Andhra Pradesh 74 (Nagraj 21, Liju 17, Pankaj 13).

Group D: Chhattisgarh 70 (Surender 24, Jagdeep 12, Santosh 10) bt Himachal Pradesh 53 (Ashok 13, Vinay 10); Bengal 68 (Debashish 16, Suhas 10) bt Jharkhand 46 (Arif Aftab 18, Manohar 12, Mohamed Siddiqui 10).

Group E: Maharashtra 64 (Karan Mahta 13, Sanjay 10) bt Jammu & Kashmir 43 (Rajesh 13); Chandigarh 80 (Ambrish 22, Mandeep 17, Ashfaq 13, Sanjay 12) bt Uttar Pradesh 55 (Abhilak Paul 17, Rajnish 10).

Group F: Orissa 67 (Vikas 21, Kalla 11) bt Pondicherry 18; Tripura 78 (Dinesh 37, Yogesh 18) bt Assam 75 (Virender 37, Binod 20).

Women: Super league: Group A: Railways 124 (Shanti 26, Geetu Anna Jose 12, Indu S. 15) bt Tamil Nadu 41 (Tina 10); Maharashtra 82 (Beena M. 29, Manisha 22) bt Kerala 47 (Litty Mathew 14).

Group B: Punjab 79 (Kuljeet Kaur 28, Paramjeet Kaur 18, Kamaljeet Kaur 12) bt Madhya Pradesh 54 (Manisha Jain 12, Ritu 11, Prerana 11).

Qualifying league: Group C: Orissa 46 (Anupa 18) bt Jharkhand 22).

Group D: Andhra Pradesh 58 (K. Kanwar 23, Bini 10) bt Rajasthan 20 (Shalu Sharma 12).

Group E: Chandigarh 64 (Santoshi 12) bt Tripura 9; Bengal 62 (Sita 10, Mridula 10, Priyanka 11) bt Karnataka 38 (Smitha 12).

Group F: Haryana 67 (Kiran 20, Rupinder 13) bt Uttar Pradesh 58 (Anamika 24, Mridula 10); Assam 46 (Saleema 13, Bano Das 15) bt Uttaranchal 22 (Ritika 13).

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