Defending champions Railways toyed with Karnataka 87-40 to storm into the semifinals of the men’s section, while Karnataka women were too strong for Tamil Nadu, winning their quarterfinal contest 65-48. Joining Karnataka in the semifinals were Delhi, who beat Kerala 67-51 and Chhattisgarh, who got the better of Maharashtra 63-55.
In men’s action, last year’s runners-up Tamil Nadu prevailed over Services 80-77 in a nail-biting match to book a berth in the semifinal. For Tamil Nadu, Hareesh Kumar top-scored with 24 points while S Robinson and V Suresh Kumar contributed 21 and 12 points respectively.
Services were leading 43-37 at the break and also had the upper hand at the end of the third quarter, which they led 65-52.
But with three minutes left, the Services cagers made silly mistakes that enabled Tamil Nadu to gradually narrow the gap and finally win the contest.
In the last two minutes of the quarterfinal match, Tamil Nadu were trailing 74-75, but Hareesh saved the day for his side by converting two free throws to win them the match. Uttarakhand also made it to the last four after beating Andhra Pradesh 71-50.
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