NAGPUR:
Maharashtra men and women cagers continued their winning run in the 68th Senior
National Basketball Championship
at the
Nehru Stadium
in Chennai on Saturday.
The fourth day of the national championship organized by the
Basketball Federation of India
(BFI) saw the Maharashtra men's outfit register back-to-back victories while their women counterparts took Rajasthan in their stride with a facile 82-71 win.
After defeating Uttar Pradesh in the morning session 52-48, Maharashtra men made light work of Assam 94-86 in their last league game of the lower pool. With this win Maharashtra emerged at the Group-F toppers and will now square up against former National champions Services on Sunday morning for a berth amongst the top-10 Indian teams.
Maharashtra women, however, continued their winning march in the upper pool. A day after they surprised former national champions Delhi, Maharashtra women outplayed Rajasthan 82-71 for their second win in as many days.
For starters, the young bunch of Maharashtra women cagers gave an aggressive start to their campaign against Rajasthan. After dominating the first period 23-14, Maharashtra tested their bench strength. Rajasthan made most of the opportunity to claim the high-scoring second period 26-22 as Maharashtra maintained a marginal five-point lead at the breather.
Maharashtra kept their cool after the change of ends too and won the third and fourth quarters 19-17 and 18-14 respectively to register a comfortable 11-point win.
Leading from the front, skipper Shireen Limaye recorded her first double double in the nationals by scoring a team-high 21 points and pulling as many as 21 rebounds, which includes eight on the front court. The Pune guard was also instrumental in three assists and a couple of steals.
Lanky Mumbai North guard Sakshi Arora joined the scoring chart with a 14-point effort. She also pulled nine rebounds. Thane forward Carina Menezes and Pune's shooting guard Shruti Sherigar contributed 12 and 10 points respectively.
For Rajasthan, Nisha Sharma scored a game-high 32 points and
Kamaljeet Taragi
contributed 17 points.
In their last league game, Maharashtra women will face the challenge of last years' runners-up Telangana on Sunday.
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