PUDUCHERRY: Kerala women and Uttarakhand men clinched top honours in the final of the 17th senior national basketball championship here on Saturday.
Finalists last year, the Kerala women squared off against dark horse Telangana in the women’s final, while familiar foes Uttarakhand and Tamil Nadu battled for Gold in the men’s final at the 67th Senior National Basketball Championship.
Known for producing some of the best women playing talent in India’s basketball history, Kerala always ended up falling short at the Senior National Championship. On Saturday, the team between them and the Gold medal was Telangana – a team which not many people expected to make the finals. This is the farthest the Telangana women’s team has reached in its short history at the Senior Nationals.
Kerala overcame Telangana 68-59.
PS Jeena top scored for the winners with 20 points, while M Gayatri netted 16 points for the losers.
In the men's section Uttarakhand staved off the challenge of Tamil Nadu 68-60 to claim the title.
In both men and women sections, the winning team received a cash prize of Rs200,000, the first runners up Rs100,000 and the second runners up Rs50,000.
A felicitation ceremony was also held for the Indian national men’s squad which finished a historic 7th at the 2016 FIBA Asia Challenge (in Iran in September) and won a Bronze medal at the 21st Super Kung Sheung Cup 2016 (in Hong Kong in December). The FIBA Asia Challenge squad won a total cash prize of Rs500,000, while the Hong Kong contingent received Rs145,000.
FINALS
WOMEN:
Kerala (Jeena PS 20, Rojamol G 10, Anjana PG 10, Greema Merlin 8) bt Telangana (M. Gayatri 16, Ramya R. 15, Suganya 12, Aishwarya Nataraj 8) 68-59 (14-19, 12-15, 20-17, 22-8)
MEN:
Uttarakhand (Amritpal Singh 34, Yadwinder Singh 9, Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 8) bt Tamil Nadu (P. Jeevanantham 12, Rikin Pethani 10, H. Muin Bek 10, P. Akilan 7) 68-60 (23-9, 5-24, 15-13, 25-16)
Morning Results from 14th January 2017
WOMEN
3rd & 4th Place Match:
Indian Railways (Navaneetha PU 21, Sruthi Menon 16, Madhu Kumar 15, Sitamani Tudu 11) bt Chhattisgarh (Poonam Chaturvedi 31, Sangeeta Kaur 13) 84-77 (25-18, 17-15, 25-14, 17-30)
MEN:
3rd & 4th Place Match:
Punjab (Talwinder Jit Singh Sahi 21, Rajveer Singh 18, Gurvinder Singh Gill 16, Arshpreet Singh Bhullar 14) bt Rajasthan (Vinod Kumar 22, Sharad Dadhich 18, Mohamad 13) 88-70 (22-22, 23-9, 18-17, 25-22)
5th & 6th Placement Match:
Kerala (Albin Baby 28, Akhil AR 21) bt Haryana (Vikas Kumar 15, Pardeep Chauhan 12) 64-54 (17-15, 18-16, 16-13, 13-10)
7th & 8th Placement Match:
Indian Railways (Somvir Chahal 37, Vijender Kumar 24) bt Karnataka (Anil Kumar BK 22, Mufeez Ahmed 14) 89-72 (14-13, 23-16, 23-31, 29-12)
Pending result from 13th January 2017
WOMEN:
5th & 6th Placement Match:
Tamil Nadu bt Delhi (Forfeit)
The championship, held between 7th and 14th January, saw 27 men’s teams and 25 women’s teams in action.
The championship was organised by the Puducherry Basketball Association under the aegis of the Basketball Federation of India.
Matches were simultaneously held on four different courts: the indoor and outdoor courts of the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium complex (Courts 1 & 2), and the two courts at the Petit Seminare School.
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