Karnataka's storms into last four

By Avinash Nair

BANGALORE, JAN. 10. Last year's semifinalists, Karnataka stormed into the last four. In a match that had its thrills and spills in plenty, the host men beat Services at 70-66 in the51st senior National basketball championship at the Sree Kanteerava stadium here on Wednesday.

Services though faster and fitter was beaten back in its own game plan.

None must have envisaged Karnataka's progress this far at the start of the championship, what with both its main playmakers - B.S. Goutham and A. Rajkumar - out due to injuries. But Sanjay Singh, thrust upon the job made a telling impact. The sturdy lad from HAL not only controlled play efficiently but also converted a couple of long shots at crucial junctures to keep the Karnataka scoreline within striking distance.

An unruly incident off the court, which halted play for nearly 15-odd minutes did not deter the teams from going for the jugular. And it proved to be one with. Going into the last quarter tied at 50-all, the lead changed hands before a spate of fouls saw the exit of Sanjay Singh, Murli Mohan and Sachindra of Karnataka and Peter John and G.R.L. Prasad of Services, all with five fouls. Two conversions by Austin Almeida and one fine effort by Basavaraj Murgod bulged Karnataka's lead to 60-52.

Servicesmen were not finished. In Sambaji Kadam the Armymen had a skilful and speedy centre who revelled to rip apart the rival defence to pave the way for Sweeto Francis to convert three baskets on the trot. At 62-64 in Karnataka's favour it looked anybody's game. Rajkumar the diminutive playmaker with a fast break and Austin with two free-throw conversions again put Karnataka 66-62 up.

Kadam and Sweeto again found the hoop either side of Austin's free-throw to make it 66-68. It was then that Sharad Nagne attempted a three-pointer, which would have clinched the issue for Services. But to his chagrin the ball bounced off the ring and Rajkumar shot off to convert with a lay-up to seal victory for the hosts

Tamil Nadu defeated Bihar 80-51 in another match. Tamil Nadu with its outside shooting not clicking changed tactics. The balding S. Gopinath weaved his way through repeatedly and with the tall pivots - Robinson and Shabeer Ahmed - managing to outweigh the rival defence with their sheer presence built upon the lead only to stretch it beyond the Bihar side.

Changing ends at 44-27 the champions simply streamrolled past the challenge from the Eastern State to win handsomely. Punjab proved too good for Rajasthan winning 85-61 in the other quarterfinals and will meet Railways in the second semi final. Railways shrugged aside the early challenge from a young Kerala side at 90-81.

The presence of Parminder (Sr) seemed to make all the difference. The aging Parminder (Sr) may not have had his best day on court, but it proved just enough to stave off the fightback, which looked threatening soon after the change of ends.

Besides shooting 36 points, the gangling international managed to dominate both the boards to peg back the aspirations of Rajasthan.

The results: Men: Quarter finals: Punjab 85 (Parminder (Sr) 36, Satya Kumar 16, Parminder (Jr) 9) bt Rajasthan 61 (Lokesh Yadav 22, Ashok Kumar 16, Virendra Joshi 14)(ht: 35-26); Tamil Nadu 80 (S. Gopinath 21, Robinson 17, Shabeer Ahmed 12) bt Bihar 51 (Jaldeep Dahiwal 18, Mohit Bhandari 9)(ht: 44-27); Karnataka 70 (Austin Almeida 20, Murli Mohan 17, Basavaraj Murgod 14) bt Services 66 (Phool Singh 18, Sweeto Francis 16,GRL Prasad 10)(Ht: 28-26); Railways 90 (Ram Kumar 23, Md. Ishlauddin 22, Vishal 18) bt Kerala 81 (Sunny Thomas 29, Joe Anthony 15, Santosh John 14)(Ht: 51-41).

Pre-quarter-finals: Kerala 86 (Subash Shenoy 36, Sunny Thomas 23, Renjith 10) bt AP 64 (S. Prasad 18, Subbaiah Choudhary 13, Vinay Kumar 12, P.B. Srinath 10)(Ht: 47- 30); Bihar 85 (Md. Riyazuddin 31, Mohit Bhandari 21, Wasim Khan 18) bt West Bengal 53 (Nagendra Tiwari 23, Suhas Bhattacharjee 12, Sujit Dey 8)(Ht: 38-31).

Losers knock-out (Semi-finals): Chandigarh 69 (H. Singh 18, Neeraj Hooda 16, Vikas Rai 9)bt Haryana 58 (Parveen 16, Rajesh 13)(Ht: 52-31); Gujarat bt Orissa.

Tuesday's results:Men: Group A: Tamil Nadu 118 (S. Gopinath 33, Shivakumar 19, Robinson 18, Moses Jeevanathan 16) bt Karnataka 61 (Austin ALmeida 15, M. Basavaraj 10, Murli Mohan 10) (ht: 54-24).

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