Tamil Nadu clinches men’s crown
January 25, 2018
Tamil Nadu beat Services 94-86 (20-22, 21-18, 27-23, 26-23) in the final to emerge the men’s champion of the senior National basketball championship at the Nehru indoor stadium here on Wednesday. This is Tamil Nadu’s tenth title in the men’s category.
Railways beat Chhattisgarh 100-71 in the women’s final for its 28th title in 32 years.
Services, which reported late, had to play catch up for the most part of the first quarter. It was 11-12, 15-16 and edged ahead 19-18, 22-20.
Tamil Nadu, which started with forwards Prasanna Venkatesh and Justin, centre Aravind and Rikin, and point guard Akilan, tried a lot of quick side-passing initially, looking and posturing straight while doing so.
Tamil Nadu led 41-40 at half time. In the third quarter, Raghu Ram scored off all three attempts of a free throw for Tamil Nadu to go ahead 50-44. But Prasanna missed to score off two attempts of a free throw when Tamil Nadu was ahead 57-50.
In the last quarter, Services’ Jairam Jaat (15 points) remarkably scored from the extreme left corner. Another highlight was Tamil Nadu captain Raghu Ram jumping and shooting backwards from inside.
The results (finals): Men: Tamil Nadu 94 (Rikin Pethani 25) bt Services 86 (Joginder 23). Women: Railways 100 (P.U. Navaneetha 30) bt Chhattisgarh 71 (Poonam 27).
