Bangalore, June 2: Andhra Pradesh cagers did an encore. The magicians from South staged another escape act as they defeated Karnataka 65-57 in a group A clash and ensured their berth in the semi-finals of the basketball championships in the fourth National Games at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium complex here on Monday.

Karnataka's day of miseries were complete when the women's team crashed out of the competition, going down 48-53 to Kerala in a Group A clash.Karnataka men, inspired by the vociferous home crowd, had for most of the game maintained a 10-points lead. But the chinks in their armoury were exposed by the resilient Andhra players.

Andhra employed pressure tactics and it paid off as Karnataka missed easy shots and committed too many errors. They added to their agony by committing too many fouls.

From 40-50 down they drew level at 52 all. They let Karnataka take the lead again but caught up at 57 all after which the hosts players went scoreless.Srinath (15), Subbaiah (11), and NK Raju 16 were the top scorers. Former India captain, R Rajan (16), Gautam (15) and Muralimohan (10) were in good form for the hosts.

The decisive match in this group will be the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu clash which will decide who qualifies as the second team.

In a battle between two runners-up, Bihar from group B stunned National runners-up Punjab 57-54 to qualify for the semi-final.

It was a surprising result considering that Bihar, the National Games runners-up, are still struggling to forge a combination. But they played smartly. Punjab, struggling to control the game, had to depend on their pivots, captain Parminder Singh (Sr) and Vipin Kumar, to keep them going.But with the tall Mobin Islauddin and Jaldeep Dhaliwal foiling them repeatedly, they had to rely on long-range shots. And on this front, Gagnesh Kumar, the sharp shooter, had an off day.

If anything could have got Bihar it was fatigue. They lost a minor lead to trail Punjab 43-52. But the induction of Job Muniene perked them up. They went on a 14-0 run to gain a 57-52 advantage which proved enough.

National champions, Tamil Nadu, who surprising lost 73-75 to Andhra yesterday, got into their winning way by beating West Bengal 59-47.MAHARASHTRA IN SEMIS: In the women's competition, West Bengal and Maharashtra from group A and B respectively qualified for the semi-finals by virtue of winning their second match. West Bengal defeated Andhra Pradesh 61-43 while Maharashtra won convincingly 72-49 against Chandigarh.The fight for the second spot from each groups is between Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in group A and Punjab and Chandigarh in Group B.

Maharashtra, who had opened their campaign in style by trouncing Punjab, gave the same treatement to Chandigarh. They only have MP to meet in their final league match which might prove another washout as MP have lost both their matches and are out of competition.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.