Tamil Nadu, Railways cagers supreme

Tamil Nadu and Railways won the men's and women's crowns respectively in the 52nd Airtel-Trident National basketball championships, which concluded at the Guru Nanak stadium in Ludhiana on Tuesday.

In the finals, Tamil Nadu beat Punjab 86-76, while Railways outclassed Kerala 96-63, after leading 55-31 at half-time.

Punjab, playing before their home crowd, began on a jittery note and failed to put the ball into the net in the intial stages despite showing their attacking supremacy. Their skipper Parminder (sr), who had an outstanding tournament, disappointed in the final today.

On the other hand, Tamil Nadu, led by Robinson, who scored 29 points, were more sure at their finishing which saw them lead 49-27 at half time.

However, in the second half, the hosts came back strongly and Gagnesh Kumar and Swaraj combined well to narrow down the margin. Gagnesh scored 22 points while Swaraj accounted for 19 points.

At the start of the fourth quarter, the hosts were trailing 55-71 but they sprung back strongly to score 21 points. However, Tamil Nadu besides defending stoutly netted in an occasional basket to emerge champions.

Railways dominated the match right from the start and their lethal combination of Cherian, Ranjan Jose and Seeba Mago were unstoppable. While Jose accounted for 21 points, Cherian scored 20 points.

For Kerala, Ambili Thomas was the top scorer with 16 points followed by Sini, with 15.