Railways to take on TN

SURAT: Defending champions Services men were shown the door in the Senior National basketball championships by Railways in the semifinals at the Pandit Deendayal Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.
The defending champions faded away after a rousing start as Railways toyed with them towards the end in their 89-72 victory.
In the other semifinal, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand fought out a humdinger of match before the former prevailed with the winning basket being scored in the dying minutes of the match.
Earlier, it was the never-say-die spirit of the Railways that helped them win the day. They reversed an early deficit into half-time lead of 38-32.
When play started, the relatively short-statured Sambhaji Kadam sprayed passes to his taller mates Jai Ram Jat, Arockia Babu and Dalip Kumar who confidently surged ahead to score. Services looked in control then at 28-22.
However, Railways found their touch through Gagandeep Singh (20), Jasjot Singh(18) and Yadwinder Singh 14. Services scored chiefly through Dalip Kumar (19) and A Babu (16).
In the second semifinal, Uttarakhand started with a flourish, racing to 10-0 lead but mispasses and inaccurate shooting helped TN to crawl back into the game and even go ahead 14-11 on a three-pointer by Veeneteh Ravi Mathew.
Star TN player Robinson took time to get into his groove, but once he struck form - with a slam dunk - Tamil Nadu turned aggressor and romped to a 62-53 advantage at the start of the fourth quarter.
But Uttarakhand were not done yet. A three-pointer by star international Riyazuddin helped them even the score at 62-62.
The seesaw battle continued till 30 seconds from the end when Tamil Nadu led 72-71. Ten seconds remained when the match's final basket finished Uttarakhand's hopes.
R Chandrashekaran led the scoring for Tamil Nadu with 24 points. Robinson fetched 21 and Mathew 12. Trideep Rai (28) and Suresh Ranot were Uttarakhand's top scorers.