By Mukund Dhus,

PUDUCHERRY,

Jan 9,

KERALA men upset fancied Punjab 88-77 and holders Railway women narrowly beat Chhattisgarh 71-68 in the league phase of the 67th Sr National Basketball Championship in progress here on Monday.

Standing at six-foot-nine-inch, Poonam Chaturvedi used her height well as she emerged top scorer of the match with 42 points but still could not save her team from defeat.
In fact, she could not hold on to the ball in the dying seconds and committed a silly foul resulting in free throws for the winners. Kerala, strong contenders for the women title, outplayed Delhi 80-44.

Karnataka men overcame strong challenge of Haryana 76-73 and Indian Railways beat Chhattisgarh 64-53.

Uttarakhand men edged out Tamil Nadu 69-67 in a thrilling encounter. The capacity crowd witnessed one of the best games of the tournament so far. Both the title contenders displayed quality game. TN led throughout the match but faltered in the last minute to lose the lead and the match. Tall Amritpal led from the front to emerge top scorer of the match (28 pts) for the winners while Prasanna excelled for the losers scoring 24 points.