TN cagers stun Punjab
R RAMACHANDRAN

NEW DELHI, DEC 31: Coach AD Sendhureshwaran's one-hour session the previous night with vital video clippings and his knowledge of Punjab cagers paid off for Tamil Nadu as they broke the myth of defending champions Punjab into tethers in the Pepsi National Basketball Championships at the packed Talkatora Indoor Stadium here on Friday.

Tamil Nadu, champions at the Calcutta nationals three years ago, now get a chance to go for the title again when they meet five-time finalist Bihar in the final on Saturday.

Tamil Nadu defeated Punjab 74-61 and Bihar won over Karnataka 73-66. Tamil Nadu's swing has been steady. In spite of the two losses they suffered in the Super League phase to Punjab and Karnataka, they proved to be a vastly improved team.

RESULTS :

Men (semi-finals): Tamil Nadu 74 (Sugwaneshwaran 20, Gopinathan 19, Sridhar 19) bt Punjab 61 (Parminder Singh Sr 18, Vipin Kumar 18, Gurcharanjit Singh 10): HT: 47-32; Bihar 73 (Nishant Kumar 17, Shahid Qureshi 19, Jaideep Dhaliwal 17) bt Karnataka66 (Murali Mohan 30, B.S. Gautham 10, N. Basavaraj 15) HT: 31-29.

Relegation: Delhi 92 (Dalbir Singh 28, Jaya Rangan 10, Vinay Sheoran 19) bt Haryana 65 (Devinder Hooda 35, M Atul 12) HT: 38-31.Women (3rd place): Tamil Nadu 42 (P Anitha 16, N Shyamala 7) bt Punjab 39 (Kiranjeet 16, Manpreet 9) HT: 17-20.

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