Karnataka men bounce back to drub Haryana

A day after they were subjected to a humiliating loss in the opening fixture, Karnataka bounced back in fine fashion to beat Haryana 92-73 in their second group game of the 66th Senior National Basketball Championships here on Sunday.

Spearheaded by their captain Arvind A, the hosts dominated their opponents in every department of the game as they led from the very beginning and never looked back from there on.

Teaming up with point guard Rajesh Uppar, Arvind scored at will as the Haryana defence had no answers to the Vijaya Bank player’s deceptive dribbling and pacy counter attacks.
Arvind led the rout with 33 points, while Anil Kumar played a handy role in keeping their opponents under pressure. Kumar finished the game with 23 points to his name.

Earlier in the day, the title holders Uttarakhand kicked-off their campaign with a nervy 76-65 win over Delhi at the Chamundi Vihar stadium.

Starting with the experienced trio of Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Murali Krishna and Riyaz Uddin, coach Amit Kumar might have hoped for his side to dominate the proceedings. But that was not the case, as Delhi, led by their point guard Sachin Sharma, were all over their opponents taking a 10 point lead in the opening quarter.

The Delhi centre, Gopal Ram, made good use of his towering figure as the former Services man ruled the paint on the offence and had his opponents in check on the defence.

However, as the game progressed, Bhriguvanshi brought his ‘A’ game to the fore with a number of his trademark solo runs that caught the Delhi defence by surprise. The Indian skipper top scored for the defending champions with 18 points, while shooting guard Trideep Rai supported Bhriguvanshi with a handful of quality shots. He ended with a total of 17 points to his name.

Though in the later stages, Delhi tried to get back into the game with their guards Sachin Sharma (19 points) and Pravin Dovan (19 points) leading the charge, they couldn’t match the their opponents pace as Uttarakhand held their nerves to begin their campaign on a winning note.

Meanwhile in the women’s section, Karnataka lost to Delhi 67-78 while reigning champions Chhattisgarh put their loss in the opening encounter behind them to beat Madhya Pradesh 84-60.

Playing a high-speed game, Karnataka looked on course for their first win of the tournament. But a shambolic fourth quarter saw them give away a five-point lead as Delhi, led by their agile shooting guard Raspreet Sidhu (16 points), notched up a close win.

While Karnataka’s Kruthika Laxman (27 points) and Bhandavya HM (16 points) ensured that the hosts led the game for a long phase, once they were pulled out in the closing stages, they couldn’t defend their lead.
DH News Service

Results: Men: Level 1: Group A: Karnataka: 92 (Arvind A 33, Anil Kumar 23, Shashi S 13) bt Haryana: 73 (Deepak 29, Vijendra 18); Uttarakhand: 76 (Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 18, Trideep Rai 17, Murali Karihna 12) bt Delhi: 65 (Sachin Sharma 19, Gopal Ram 9)
Group B: Kerala: 81 (R Manoj 19, Philip Basil 12, Pereira Eduric 12, Wilson Monish 11) bt Telangana: 58 (Boom M David 13, Yadav S Nihal 10); Tamil Nadu: 83 (Aravind A 24, Rikin Pethani 15, Pratham Singh 11, Prasanna 11) bt Services: 59 (Narendar 16, Setu SM 14, Ashutosh Rai 10).

Level 2: Group C: Puducherry: 71 (Vinod 32, Harikrishna 11) bt Goa: 64 (Shawn Soares 19, Charles D’Souza 8); Chhattisgarh: 73 (Kiran 23, Dinesh 12) bt Odisha: 48 (Sahid Khan 10); Chandigarh: 88 (Ravi 18, Kuldeep Singh 16, Sartat Singh 14) bt Puducherry: 59 (Vinod 16).

Group D: Rajasthan: 84 (Kamran 20, Dinesh 17, Govind 13) bt Himachal Pradesh: 59 (Deepak 21, Anoop 16, Ashwani 9); Bihar: 69 (Yogesh Kumar 18, Hemant Hooda 16) bt Mizoram: 38 (Vishesh 11).

Group E: Gujarat: 66 (Vinay 19, Harpal 10) bt Jammu & Kashmir: 43 (Shubam 13); Maharashtra:  88 (Edwin Irvin 18, Loveneet Ajwal 16, Pradeep Chavan 16) bt Uttar Pradesh: 80 (Ankur Anand Singh 27, Ashutosh Ku Singh 15, Bobby Singh 14); Jammu & Kashmir: 59 (Robal 12) bt Arunachal Pradesh: 13.

Group F: Madhya Pradesh: 51 (Harindra 10) bt Jharkhand: 38 (Alen 13); West Bengal: 82 (Sagar Joshi 29, Amar Singh 10) bt Andhra Pradesh: 64 (Kumar Naveen 18, Kumar 12).
Women: Level 1: Group A: Chhattisgarh: 84 (Poonam Chaturvedi 52, Sangeeta 8) bt Madhya Pradesh: 60 (Sakshi Pandey 18, Ringhen 15, Nimdo Bhutia 10).

Group B: Railways: 72 (Raja Priya 15, Sitamani 13) bt Punjab: 26 (Indu Kumari 6); Delhi: 78 (Pratima Singh 30, Prashanti Singh 25, Raspreet Sidhu 16) bt Karnataka: 67 (Kruthika Laxman 27, Bhandavya HM 16).

Level 2: Group C: Uttar Pradesh: 62 (Vaishanavi 18, Anjana 11) bt Himachal Pradesh: 23.
Group D: Andhra Pradesh: 32 (Nikita 10) bt Tripura: 12; Odisha: 37 (Jayashree 11) bt Haryana: 27; Rajasthan: 53 (Nisha Sharma 25, Surbhi S Nair 10) bt Chandigarh: 27.
Group E: Bihar: 47 (Shravanthi 32) bt Puducherry: 29; West Bengal: 64 (Anjana 16, Salma Devi 15) bt Gujarat: 12.

Group F: Uttarakhand: 27 (Siwani N 9, Mehar Sanou 7) bt Goa: 25 (Rachel La Posa 10)