:#5: 65th Senior NationalBasketballChampionship

Bhilwara, Rajasthan: After losing to Indian Railways on the opening day, Delhi women found the net repeatedly to outclass Punjab in today morning’s Level 1 League game. Pratima Singh top scored with 27 points for the winners. Defending champions Chhattisgarh women too put behind its loss yesterday to Kerala to register an emphatic 114-41 win over Andhra Pradesh. The balanced scoring attack and selfless ball movement of the Chhattisgarh women had four players score in double digits. Chhattisgarh’s male counterparts unfortunately found themselves on the losing end against defending champions Tamil Nadu. Captain Amjyot Singh recorded a double double for TN with 21 points and 11 rebounds.
In the lower level 2, West Bengal men had back to back wins first over Delhi last evening and today against Uttar Pradesh. S Joshi for West Bengal was spectacular in both games averaging in excess of 30 points in each of these two games.
Earlier this morning, Services fought back against Karnataka men to hand them their first defeat of the tournament so far. In a back and forth game, the experienced Servicemen separated themselves in the second half to win 80-72.
Morning Results from 31-12-2014
Level 1
Women
1)      Delhi (Pratima Singh 27, Raspreet Sidhu 18) bt Punjab (Samriti 24, Kirandeep 13) 84-55 [17-13, 25-18, 23-12, 19-12]
2)      Chhattisgarh (Sangeeta 29, L Deepa 21, Poonam Chaturvedi 20, Sharanjeet 18) bt Andhra Pradesh (A Suryakumari 21) 114-41 [30-8, 36-13, 21-8, 27-12]
Men
1)      Tamil Nadu (Amjyot Singh 21 pts & 11 rbs, Prasanna Venkatesh 14, Arvind A 10) bt Chhattisgarh (V Deshmukh 11)85-37 [23-12, 19-4, 26-11, 17-10]
2)      Services (Dalip K 22, Jayaram Jat 20, Joginder Singh 16) bt Karnataka (Arvind A 22, Anil Kumar 18, Dhiraj Shetty 11)80-72 [16-11, 16-22, 29-25, 19-14]
Level 2
Women
1)      Gujarat (Fatima 16, Sreya 10) bt Goa (Shaheen 14, Piola 6) 44-24 [11-9, 12-4, 11-7, 10-4]
2)      Assam (Anju 11, Shilpy 10) bt Rajasthan (Anita 16, Nisha 10) 50-37 [18-13, 10-7, 14-6, 8-11]
3)      Haryana (Surya 26, Sandhya 14) bt Chandigarh (Kirti 16, Payal 6) 64-35 [15-7, 19-9, 12-15, 18-4]
Men
1)      West Bengal (S Joshi 31, DK Yadav 13) bt Uttar Pradesh (Akash Bhasin 18, Ashutosh Kumar 9, Rakesh Kumar 8)69-56 [15-12, 16-23, 18-8, 20-13]
2)      Delhi (Ajay Singh 12, S Sharma 11) bt Himachal Pradesh (Anoop 20, Deepak 9) 76-56 [24-18, 12-12, 25-13, 15-13]
Late Evening Results from 30-12-2014
Level 1
Women
1)      Indian Railways (R Rajapriyadarshini 17, Sitamani Tudu 14, Anju Lakra 12) bt Tamil Nadu (P Divya 12, R Ramya 10)61-38 [8-11, 25-8, 10-8, 18-11]
Level 2
Men
1)      Gujarat (Vinay 23, Kasi 14) bt Uttar Pradesh (Bhrigendra 18, Ashutosh 13) 72-47 [26-11, 26-15, 2-8, 18-13]
2)      Telangana (LS Reddy 20, J Pankaj 14) bt Andhra Pradesh (Naveen 14, J Tharun 14, G Venkata 13) 65-60 [11-16, 13-16, 17-12, 24-16]
3)      West Bengal (S Joshi 34, DK Yadav 14) bt Delhi (Pravin Doyan 19, Pulkit Sachdeva 19, Y Sharma 10) 72-69 [20-12, 14-18, 15-20, 23-19]
4)      Chandigarh (Syed Mohd 12, Atul 12, Maninder 10, Puneet 10) bt Jharkhand (Nirmal 25, Devendra 10) 70-46 [21-10, 19-14, 23-16, 7-6]
About the 65th Senior National Basketball Championship 2014
The 65th Senior National Basketball Championship 2014 is being held in Bhilwara, Rajasthan. The Championship is being organised by the Bhilwara District Basketball Association in collaboration with the Rajasthan State Basketball Association under the aegis of Basketball Federation of India and IMG-Reliance. Matches are being held at the Sukhodia Indoor Stadium and the two outdoor courts at the Nagar Parishad complex. 27 men’s teams and 24 women’s teams are participating in this event that will be played in a league-cum-knockout format. For this year’s edition, Tamil Nadu men and Chhattisgarh women are the defending champions.
The teams have been divided into two levels: the upper Level 1 and lower level 2. Level 1 teams have further been split into two groups (A and B) while Level 2 teams have been split into four groups. The top four teams from each Level 1 group and the top team from each of the four Level 2 groups will qualify for the knockout stages. A separate knockout tournament (called “Losers Knockouts”) will also be held for the 2nd and 3rd placed teams from each of the four lower level groups that will be knocked out of the main tournament.