INVC,,
Raipur,,
Home side Chhattisgarh, Southern Railway, and ONGC continued their winning streaks to enter the Semi-Finals at the 25th IMG-Reliance Federation Cup Basketball Championship for Men & Women at Raipur on Sunday.
Down by 16 after the first quarter to Delhi, Chhattisgarh’s Women’s side showed their resilience and rode the support of a loud home crowd to win their third consecutive at the Federation Cup. Chhattisgarh booked their berth as the top seeded team from their group to enter the semi-final in the process.
It was an exciting game of runs: Delhi started off incredibly well, feeding off the hot hand of Prashanti Singh, Akanksha Singh, and Raspreet Sidhu. Chhattisgarh made several uncharacteristic mistakes and misses early in the game, as Delhi looked comfortable.
But the tables turned from the second quarter: an enthusiastic crowd and some sharp defense helped Chhattisgarh start the quarter with a 14-1 run. They took the lead at halftime, 36-35, and didn’t look back after that, going 29-9 in the third quarter, and turning the game into a blowout.
Anju Lakra (24 points), Pushpa M (22), and Bharti Netan (17) were unstoppable for Chhattisgarh, particularly Anju whose outside shooting punctured any chances of a Delhi comeback. Seema Singh dominated the post, grabbing 15 rebounds in the process. The home team got back to their traditional style of quick passing and scoring play, and delighted the crowd with a comfortable 86-65 victory. Prashanti Singh led Delhi with 23 points and Akanksha Singh added 16.
Chhattisgarh will now play Kerala in their Semi-Final on Monday evening. Delhi will face a difficult game against Southern Railway.
In an earlier Men’s game, ONGC made it three wins out of three as they defeated Vijaya Bank 74-40 to cruise into the semi-finals as toppers of Pool B. ONGC once again took advantage of their size and used a balanced scoring attack to defeat Vijaya Bank, led by Trideep Rai (22), S. Sridhar (18) and Riyazuddin (17).
ONGC are set to face Western Railway in an exciting semi-final game on Monday evening.
Women’s team Southern Railway were also undefeated in the tournament, winning all three of their games with easy margins. On Sunday morning, Southern Railway played Kerala, as Geethu Anna Jose stepped us to put a dominating performance against her home state and snub them 82-56. Geethu scored 28 points while Anitha and Renjini Peter had 16 each for Railway.
Karnataka Women had an easy time against Andhra Pradesh, whom they beat 80-37 behind 16 points by Smitha K. Kawaljit Kaur had 19 for AP.
Maharashtra Women started off extremely strong against a hazed Tamil Nadu side, taking a 22-2 lead after the end of the first quarter. TN continued to struggle to get many points on the board for the rest of the game. Maharashtra played their most efficient game of the tournament and eased to a 79-31 victory. Shireen Limaye had 16 points for Maharashtra.
Scores
Men
ONGC 74 (Trideep Rai 22, S. Sridhar 18, Riyazuddin 17) bt. Vijaya Bank 40.
Bhilai Steel Plant vs IOB (Chennai) in progress
Women
Southern Railway 82 (Geethu Anna Jose 28, Anitha P. 16, Renjini Peter 16) bt. Kerala 56.
Karnataka 80 (Smitha K 16, Kruthik Laksman 14) bt. Andhra Pradesh 37 (Kawaljit Kaur 19).
Maharashtra 79 (Shireen Limaye 16, Manisha Dhange 15) bt. Tamil Nadu 31.
Chhattisgarh 86 (Anju Lakra 24, Pushpa M. 22, Bharti Netan 17, Aruna Kindo 14) bt. Delhi 65 (Prashanti Singh 23, Akanksha Singh 16, Raspreet Sidhu 13).
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