RailEnquiry

LUDHIANA: Defending champions Railways scored their second consecutive win in the women's section of the 63rd Senior National Basketball Championship with a thumping victory over Kerala on Saturday.Railways dictated terms of their opponents as they were ahead in all the four quarters with scorelines 36-10, 25-19, 24-12, 21-17 respectively.Top India player Geethu Anna Jose scored 17 points while Manisha Dange (16), S Kokila (13), P Anitha (12), Aashna (11) and M Pushpa (11) were the other scorers for Railways.In other matches in women's section, Chanidgarh beat Gujarat 49-22, Maharashtra defeated Tamil Nadu 57-47 while Delhi and Chhattisgarh won against Uttar Pradesh (80-56) and Karnataka (70-55) respectively.In the men's section, Gujarat faced a tough fightback before eventually beating Himachal Pradesh 90-66. Jammu and Kashmir recovered in the final quarter only yo score a 68-57 win over Chandigarh. Tamil Nadu also endured a stiff fight from Railways before winning the match 85-70.Madhya Pradesh and Assam had the closest contest on Saturday with the former coming out 58-57 winner.On the other hand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Services hardly broke their sweat as they beat West Bengal 55-28, Pondicherry 85-17 and Kerala 82-51 respectively.

A total of 46 teams are vying for top honours in the championship.

The event, organised by the BFI and supported by IMG-Reliance, will conclude on January 4 at Guru Nanak Dev Indoor Stadium.

The competition will be played on league-cum-knockout basis and will see the participation of 25 men's and 21 women's teams.

Top 10 teams of the previous year ranking are grouped in Pool A & B (Level I) while the rest of the teams will be playing qualifying matches in Pools C, D, E and F.

The winner will take home a purse of Rs 100,000 while the first and second runners-up will receive Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.