Anantharaj the hero as Tamil Nadu overcomes the Kerala challenge

A. Anantharaj’s spectacular burst in the last three minutes of the third quarter flipped what was until then a tight encounter into a relatively comfortable 87-57 win for Tamil Nadu against Kerala in the quarterfinals of the 75th senior National basketball championship at the Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Friday. Overall, the 29-year-old converted six out of his nine three-point attempts to finish with 24.

TN was stretched in the first half by Kerala, led by A.S. Sharath, who scored 17 points, as the two sides played an intense game of cat-and-mouse, with the lead changing hands repeatedly. At the end of the first quarter, the scores were tied 15-15 before the host led by two points at the break (36-34).

In the second half, the hosts found a higher gear, with Anantharaj scoring 13 points, including three three-pointers in the third quarter. The reigning champion went on an 18-point run during the last two quarters and raced to a 24-point lead in just five minutes, leaving Kerala gasping for breath.

Earlier, Delhi edged Karnataka 80-73 in a gripping contest to reach the last four. For Delhi, after Ravi Bhardwaj scored 10 out of the first 13 points, Jeethandar Singh and Ayush Sharma took over.

Karnataka fought back in the second half, narrowing a 15-point deficit to just six, thanks to Sumanth Satynarayan’s fine driving lay-ups and three-pointers. However, Delhi managed to score twice, including two free throws in the last stages, to seal the tie.

The results (quarterfinals): Men: Tamil Nadu 87 (A. Anantharaj 24, Pranav Prince 10) bt Kerala 57 (A.S. Sharath 17, Aaron Varghese Bleesen 17).

Uttar Pradesh 93 (Harsh Dagar 30, Kushal Singh 22, Digvijay Singh 15, Satyajeet Chaprana 11, Prince Tyagi 11) bt Rajasthan 90 (Mohammad Ishan 29, Akshit Hooda 21, Lokendra Singh 15, Mahaveer 13, Ashish Trivedi 10).

Delhi 80 (Jeethandar Singh 26, Ayush Sharma 18, Ravi Bhardwaj 17, M. Sivasakthivel 10) bt Karnataka 73 (Sumanth Satyanarayan 19, Arvind Arumugam 14, Aaron Monteiro 11).

Railways 82 (Palpreet Singh Brar 13, Princepal Singh 12, Sahaij Pratap Singh 11, Manik 10, Kanwar Gurbaz Singh Sandhu 10) bt Telangana 53.

Women: Madhya Pradesh 64 (Manvi Srivastava 24, Ananya Maheshwari 17, Khushi Pal Singh 10) bt Karnataka 63 (Sruthi Arvind 20, Sanjana Ramesh 14, H.M. Bhandavya 12).

Tamil Nadu 72 (R. Sruthy 22, Shree Varshini 19, J. Ishwarya 11) bt Maharashtra 70 (Ankita Kumari 17, Siya Deodhar 14, S. Lakshmi Priya 13, Reva Kulkarni 12).

Railways 101 (K. Sathya 30, Pushpa Senthilkumar 12, Manmeet Kaur 10, Poonam Chaturvedi 10, Namrata 10) bt Gujarat 17.

Kerala 91 (Sreekala Rani 23, Aneesha Cleetus 19, Kavitha Jose 14, J. Jayalakshmi 10) bt Delhi 54 (Suman 16, Prakriti Ranjan 10).