Basketball Nationals | Delhi gets past Punjab in a topsy-turvy contest

In a tightly contested match that saw four lead changes in the first quarter, Delhi prevailed over Punjab 79-62 to post its second win in the men’s section of the 75th senior National basketball championship at the Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.

The clash between the two northern sides was evenly matched in the first quarter, with Punjab taking the early lead before Delhi went on a 10-point run. Punjab, one of the heavyweights in the nationals, then nailed two three-pointers to get its nose ahead 19-18. However, at the whistle, Ayush Sharma’s spectacular jump shot three-pointer from the side put Delhi ahead.

From there on, Delhi slowly went about staying ahead by a handful of points as Jeethandar Singh was on the prowl, scoring 21 points.

Punjab was sub-par, making elementary mistakes, losing possession tamely, and even falling foul of the shot clock in the second quarter. Punjab, last year’s runner-up, pulled things back after the half-time break but fizzled off in the final 10 minutes. Only Tajinderbir Singh kept the contest alive, but he lacked support from his teammates. In contrast, Delhi’s Issac T. Thomas and Jeethandar were efficient on rebounds, helping their side pocket two points.

Earlier, Karnataka beat Rajasthan by 21 points (100-79) to secure its third victory and book a place in the quarterfinals.

In the women’s section, Railways, Karnataka and Kerala booked a berth in the last eight after winning their third league game.

Important results: Women: Group A: Indian Railways 113 (Pushpa Senthil Kumar 26, K.B. Harshita 20, Poonam Chaturvedi 14, Harima Sudari 11, A. Nitika 10) bt Maharashtra 66 (Siya Deodhar 12, Dhara Phate 12)

Karnataka 103 (Mahek Sharma 22, H.M. Bhandhavya 16, Shruti Arvind 14, Sanjana Ramesh 13) bt Chhattisgarh 50.

Group B: Kerala 102 (Aneesha Cleetus 24, V.J. Jayalakshmi 17, R. Sreekala 16) bt West Bengal 48 (Madhu Kumari 28).

Madhya Pradesh 70 (Manvi Srivastava 17, Khushi Pal Singh 11, Ananya Maheshwari 10) bt Gujarat 52 (Vidhiben Baria 20, Aahana George 10).

Men: Group A: Karnataka 100 (Arvind Arumugam 27, Pratyanshu Tomar 22, Shashank Rai 15, Aaron Monteiro 12) bt Rajasthan 79 (Ashish Trivedi 25, Akshit Hooda 22).

Services 76 (Himanshu Hooda 26, Ajay Singh 18, T.S. Santosh 16) bt Gujarat 68 (Sahaj Kumar Patel 17, Krishnapalsinh Gohil 16, Vinay Kaushik 16, Jigrajsinh Gohil 13).

Group B: Indian Railways 94 (Amrendra Nayak 15, Vishnu Prasad 15, Manik 14, Surya Pratap Singh 12) bt Chandigarh 43 (Sanju Gajbhiye 10).

Delhi 79 (Jeethandar Singh 21, Ayush Sharma 12, Issac T. Thomas 11, Abhishek Tyagi 11, Rachit 10) bt Punjab 62 (Tajinderbir Singh 20).