Karnataka shock Uttarakhand

Karnataka men caused a major upset, beating defending champion Uttarakhand 85-83  on Thursday  in a nail-biting Group 'A' match in Level 1 of the 68th Senior National Basketball Championship here.

Arvind Arumugam led the way for Karnataka with 35 points while Yadwinder Singh (33) did the bulk of the scoring for the holders.

Karnataka trailed 17-24 in the first quarter before picking up steam in the next, to gain an eight-point advantage.

They nosed ahead with another good performance in the third quarter.

The Uttarakhand team roared back in the final quarter and enjoyed the better of the proceedings but couldn't quite catch up with their rivals and went down by a mere two points.

In another match, Rajasthan defeated Kerala 87-72.

The Karnataka women didn't lag behind their male counterparts and produced a superb show to stun holders Kerala 70-67 in a close game in Group A.

Priyanka was the top-scorer for the winning team, netting 20 points.

The strong Indian Railways women's team came up with a dominant performance to beat Maharashtra 98-47.

Results: Men : Level 1: Group A: Rajasthan: 87 (Vinod 39, Sharad 15) bt Kerala: 72 (Gineeb 17, Eudric 15); Karnataka: 85 (Arvind 35) bt Uttarakhand: 83 (Yadwinder 33).

Level 2: Group C: Services: 87 (Joginder Singh 15) bt Goa: 26; Chattisgarh: 45 bt Sikkim 19.

Group F: West Bengal: 54 bt Maharashtra: 49

Group D: Delhi: 68 bt Andhra Pradesh: 50.

Women: Level 1: Group A: Karnataka: 70 (Priyanka 20) bt Kerala: 67 (Jeena 37);  Chhattisgarh: 93 (Anju Lakra 29) bt Tamil Nadu: 85 (Srividya Sekar 16).

Group B: Indian Railways: 98 (Anitha 16, Rajapriya 13) bt Maharashtra: 47 (Mukda 10, Shireen 9).

Level 2: Group C: Uttar Pradesh: 59 bt Gujarat: 30.