Kerala women retained their bronze medal from last season with a thrilling 79-73 win against Chhattisgarh in the 69th national senior basketball championship at Bhavnagar in Gujarat Saturday.
Kerala captained by Rojamol G. was yet again powered by the consistent Jeena P.S. who top scored 21 points while Poojamol made 18. The lanky Poonam Chaturvedi, as usual, scored the bulk of Chhattisgarh’s points – 41 but it wasn’t enough as Kerala, after leading 42-33 at half-time, ensured a podium finish.
In the men’s category, Tamil Nadu claimed bronze defeating Karnataka 84-69 from a half-time lead of 44-39. In the matches for 5th and 6th positions, Telangana women defeated Karnataka 54-42 while in the men’s event Uttarakhand edged Rajasthan 54-53. In other classification matches, Indian Railways won 74-65 against Haryana in the men’s category and Punjab overpowered Delhi 37-22 in a women’s game.
Bronze-medal matches
Women: Kerala 79 (Jeena P.S. 21, Poojamol K.S. 18, Anjana P.G. 13) bt Chhattisgarh 73 (Poonam Chathurvedi 41, Seema Singh 12, L. Deepa 12),
Men: Tamil Nadu 84 (H Muin Bek 20, Hariram 19, Justin Gnanaraj 19) bt Karnataka 64 (Jeethendra Singh 18, Rahul Sharath 16)
