Karnataka teams make disappointing start

 Karnataka’s campaign at the 66th Senior National Basketball Championships got off to a disappointing start with both the men’s and the women’s team suffering defeats in their opening encounters here on Saturday.

The men’s team, led by skipper A Arvind, lost to Punjab 76-89, while the women’s side also went down to Punjab 64-68 at the Chamundi Vihar stadium.

Karnataka men struggled to find their rhythm at the start and Punjab ensured that they were punished with Talwinder Singh (21 points and one rebound) and Indian international Gurvinder Gill (18 points and 11 rebounds) making some sparkling runs. Though Karnataka displayed their quality in phases with skipper Arvind (25 points) and Anil Kumar (24 points) leading the charge, their efforts were not enough to see them through the game against an opponent that dominated the tie from the word go.

Meanwhile, the women’s side were made to pay for their slow start as they too could not overturn an early deficit as Punjab’s lanky centre Harjeet Kaur (11 points) and shooting guard Indu Kumari (11 points) added misery on their opponents.

Earlier in the day, heavyweights in the men’s section, Tamil Nadu, kicked-off their challenge at the meet with an impressive 71-41 win over Railways.

Though they too were slow to get of the blocks, the hoopsters from Tamil Nadu were all over their opponents as the game progressed.

Tamil Nadu had power forward Pratham Singh (14 points) and Aravind Annadurai (15 points and three rebounds) to thank as the duo notched up points with ease. The ever-reliable Rikin Pethani and point guard Akilan Pari held things tight in the back, while also setting up their team-mates with scoring options.

It was Pethani who top scored for Tamil Nadu with 18 points and four rebounds. His presence inside the paint during the attack was instrumental as the Railmen could find no way to stop the 6’8’’ centre from finding the basket.

In the women’s section, defending champions Chhattisgarh got off to the worst possible start losing their opening tie to Kerala 67-54.

Though their star player, Poonam Chhaturverdi notched up 16 points with her swift movements and smooth ball control, it was not enough to stop the Kerala side as skipper PS Jeena (21 points and four rebounds) and PS Neenumol (12 points) ensured that their side held their ground to register a win.

Results: Men: Level 1: Group A: Punjab: 89 (Gagandeep Singh 27, Talwinder Singh 21, Gurvinder Gill 18) bt Karnataka: 76 (A Arvind 25, Anil Kumar 24, Shashi Kumar 12).

Group B: Services: 95 (Jairam J 14, Joginder Singh 11) bt Telangana: 44 (Nihal Yadav 9, Ambatty Reddy); Tamil Nadu: 71 (Rikin Pethani 18, A Aravind 15, Pratham Singh 14) bt Railways: 44 (Palpreet Singh 13, Himanshu Sharma 10 pts); Haryana: 75 (Virender 18, Deepak Rathee 14) bt Delhi: 54 (Pravin Davon 10).

Level 2: Group C: Odisha: 50 (Ashok Nayak 11, Sahid Khan 11) bt Puducherry: 40 (Hari Krishan 16, Vinod PG 12); Chhattisgarh: 56 (Dineah Mishra 19, Rudraksh Pandey 11) bt Goa: 34 (Bosco Furtado 11, Shwan Soares 10).

Group D: Tripura: 31 (Vishal Vikram Singh 10) bt Mizoram: 14 (Sudir 12); Rajasthan: 62 (Kamran Khan 13, Govind Khoiwal 13, Partha Sarathi 11, Hirendra 9) bt Tripura: 17 (Divya Lamba 6, Vishal Vikram 6).

Group E: Gujarat: 82 (Goti 18, Dhawal 17, Dlshant 15) bt Arunachal Pradesh: 32 (Surit Singh 10).

Group F: Andhra Pradesh: 77 (Naveen Kumar 30, Verma Kumar 11) bt Jharkhand 28 (Allen Peter 8); Madhya Pradesh: 78 (M Prakash 47, R Mahendrasing 12) bt West Bengal: 65 (S Manpreet 24, J Sagar 11).

Women: Level 1: Group A: Telangana: 73 (R Ramya 21, Anusha Anto 16, P Divya 14, L Suganya 10) bt Madhya Pradesh: 42 (Sakshi Pandey 15, Nimdo Bhutia 13); Kerala: 67 (PS Jeena 21, PS Neenumol 12) bt Chhattisgarh: 54 (Poonam Chatturvedi 16, Saranjeet Kaur 14).

Group B: Delhi: 72 (Prashanti S 19, Pratima S 16, Raspreet 13) bt Tamil Nadu: 50 (Rajini Peter 11); Punjab: 68 (Harjeet Kaur 11 pts, Indu Kumari 11 pts, Kirandeep Kaur 10 pts) bt Karnataka: 64 (Bhandavya HM 21 pts, Lopamudra pts 18).

Level 2: Group D: Odisha: 52 (Rajashreeswain 16) bt Tripura: 11.
Group E: Gujarat: 42 (Metha 13, Godhani 11) bt Puducherry: 18 (Suganya N 6).
Group F: Rajasthan: 42 (Nisha Sharma 21) bt Uttarakhand: 16 (Bhavana Bisht 7).