Hosts Karnataka frittered away a ten-point lead in the second quarter to eventually crash to a 79-85 defeat against Kerala in the women’s section on the opening day of the IMGReliance 27th Federation Cup basketball championships at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on Wednesday.
Kerala lead by three points at 19-16 at the end of the first quarter. But Karnataka, with some spirited work by the diminutive Sagarika Shyam and Savitha in attack and defence, managed to open up a ten-point lead at 49-39 at the end of the second. But giving the ball away without much provocation and some passes finding their way into the waiting hands of the opposition, Karnataka fell behind at 61-63 and the end of it all it was 85-79 in Kerala’s favour. With four minutes to go, they were level at 63-all but Jeena and Stephy produced some accurate two-pointers after combining to good effect to go ahead marginally.
They did not look back and pulled away to win this group A game. Earlier, Maharashtra and Chattisgarh fought out a pitched battle in group B before Maharashtra won 73-62 with the impressive Manisha Dange producing three-pointers out of the blue with unfailing accuracy. She dropped the ball into the cage to emerge as the top scorer with 28 points with Renu Maurya providing adequate support with 18. Sangeeta Mandal (19) and Saranjeet Kaur (18) did so for the losers.
In the men’s section, ONGC (Uttaranchal) defeated South Central Railway, Secunderabad, 83-56 without raising much of a sweat while Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai, prevailed over Jind, Haryana 96-48 in another one-sided affair.
Results (Men) ONGC, Uttaranchal 83 (Bhruguwanshi 17, Yadvinder Singh 12, Mohit Bhandri 13, Tridp Rai 16, Riyazuddin 10) beat South Central Railway, Secunderabad 56 ( Aniket 08, Pankaj 08); Quarter Scores: 21-21, 16-18, 20-09, 20-08.
Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai 96 ( P Rikin 20, Hareesh Kolroth 20, Mihir Pandey 13, Raghu Ram 10) beat Jind Dist, Haryana 48 (Deepak Rathi 23, Vikas Mor 11); Quarter Scores: 28-21, 30-12, 16-05, 22-10.
Women: Tamil Nadu 60 ( Sangeetha 09, Aishwaraya 06, Approva Murlinath 06) beat Andhra Pradesh 20 ( Sathya Shravanthi 05); Quarter Scores: 30-09, 08-02, 05-04, 17-05.
Kerala bt Karnataka 85-79.
Quarter scores: 21-16, 18-33, 22-14, 24-16.