New Delhi, Feb 27 (IANS) Tamil Nadu shocked defending champions Uttarakhand to open their campaign with a win while Gujarat, Kerala and Haryana also registered impressive victories in the 64th National Basketball Championships here Thursday.
Tamil Nadu, playing their first match of the tournament, beat Uttarakhand 66-59 in extra-time in a pulsating Group A clash here at the Thyagaraj Stadium.
Uttarkhand, who narrowly beat Indian Railways in their opening match Wednesday, were overrun in the final quarter and extra-time.
Uttarakhand led 46-41 at the end of the third quarter, but Tamil Nadu scored 16 points to their opponents’ 11 to tie the match at 57-all.
It was one-way traffic in extra-time as Tamil Nadu outscored the defending champs nine to two.
In Group B, Kerala played a solid final quarter to narrowly get past Andhra Pradesh 65-62.
Going in to the final period, Kerala were narrowly ahead 45-43, some missed throws but glaring misses by Andhra allowed their opponents to maintain that lead till the end.
Bihar had a miserable outing, as they were thrashed 38-84 by a rampant Maharashtra team.
Amit Gahlot led Maharashtra with 20 points while Nikhil added 14.
Odisha had little trouble getting past Jharkhand 82-62 with Ashok top scoring in the match with 23 points.
Gujarat put themselves in the driver’s seat in Group F with their second consecutive win. Dishant Shah scored 25 points while Nachiket Nayak added 17 as Gujarat beat Mizoram 94-49.
Henryl Ramneahawma (13 points) was the only Mizoram player to register a double-digit score while L. Laldinsanea, with eight points, was the only other real contributor.
Haryana outscored Himachal Pradesh in every single quarter as they won their second Group C game in a row 80-48. Hemant, Balraj and Vishal added 18, 14 and 10 points, respectively, for Haryana.
In an earlier Group B encounter, Punjab had Gurvinderdeep Singh to thank as his 29 points helped them overhaul Rajasthan 92-78. Gurkirpal Singh added 23 points while Amritpal Singh chipped in with 22.
Punjab dominated the first two quarters, outscoring their opponents 32-17 after taking a 19-14 lead in the first.
Rajasthan, who lost to Services Wednesday, came back strongly in the third and fourth quarter but it proved futile as the gap was too big to bridge.
In the women’s category, Himachal Pradesh thrashed Jammu and Kashmir 54-12 while Uttar Pradesh convincingly beat Jharkhand 62-23.
Pondicherry, though, had to work hard for their narrow 65-58 win over Bihar. Bihar’s star player Satya Sarawat scored a mammoth 32 points but she got little support from her teammates apart from Arti Singh (18 points).
After losing the clash with Tamil Nadu 63-20 Wednesday, Maharashtra women came back strong defeating Punjab 71-61.
Kritika Devadkar scored 26 points, B. Sangeetha 16 with one three-pointer, Shireen Limaye 11 and Susan Kenny finished with 10 for Maharashtra.
Kiranjeet Kaur top-scored for Punjab with 17 points while Nirmal Kaur and Nagma Mirza added 15 each.
Brief Scores:
Men:
Karnataka (Anbu Kumar R 14, Arvind .A 11, Rajesh P.Uppar 10) bt Pondicherry (Joseph 7, Sundarava davel 5) 79-30.
Punjab (Gurvinderdeep Singh 29, Gurkirpal Singh 23, Amritpal Singh 22) bt Rajasthan (Jaynesh Patel 22, Danveer Singh 14, Kamran Khan 12) 92-78.
Gujarat (Dishant Shah 25, Nachiket P. Nayak 17, Gohip Indravijay 15) bt Mizoram (Henryl Ramneahawma 13, L. Laldinsanea 8) 94-49.
Haryana (Hemant 18, Balraj 14, Vishal 10) bt Himachal Pradesh (Anoop 13, Sanjeev 12, Vainder 12) 80-48 (21-10, 20-10, 15-14, 24-14)
Jammu and Kashmir (Ranbir 27, Iqbal 19, Shubam 11) bt Chandigarh (P Kumar 21, Surendar 20) 76-60.
Women:
Uttarakhand (Jyoti 22, Bhawna 17, Vaishali 6) bt Assam (Ramandeep K.Rait 16, Salima Begum 14, Smitali Saikia 9) 53-50.
Maharashtra (Krititka 27, B.Sangeeta 15, Shireen 11, Kenny Susan 10) bt Punjab (Nagma Mirza 15, Nirmal Kaur 15, Kiranjit Kuar 12) 72-61.
Pondicherry (E.Sarasu 27, M.Manjula 16) bt Bihar (G.Satya Sarawat 32, Arti Singh 18) 65-58.
Himachal Pradesh (Baljinder 18, Manisha 9) bt Jammu & Kashmir (Radhika 2, Prathiba 2) 54-12.
Uttar Pradesh (Preet 19, Niharika 15, Sunidhi 8) bt Jharkhand (Jacklin 17) 62-23.
Chhattishgarh (Bharti Netam 15, Kavita 14, Seema Singh 13, Poonam Chaturvedi 11) bt Madhya Pradesh (Sakshi Pandey 14, Neha Patel 8) 76-35.