Services shock Western Railway in Savio Cup basketball tourney

Defending champions Western Railway suffered a rare defeat, a blow-out at the hands of Services, losing 92-55 in their first match of the Savio Cup All India Basketball tournament here today.

It was an embarrassing performance, with Western conceding the lead and then chasing the game. Services were like a freight train, once they got the lead, they left Railways behind like a stranded passenger. Railways tried their might, gave virtually their entire enough minutes on the court, but nothing seemed to work.

Only once did Railway look like clawing their way back when they were down 23-38 and pulled a 5-0 run. But a three pointer by Vipin Kannan of Services left Railways coach baffled. Services were shooting like crazy, their percentages tell the tale. Narender shot 8 of 17, Shambaji Kadam, the showboat that he is, played with sense in the first half before going on to play selfishly, scored 17 but was 8 of 13, while Nixon with 15 points was 5 for 8 from the field. He shot two three pointers.

Services could have suffered due to the injury that forward Jai Ram Jat suffered. He clashed with Arjun Rawat of Railways and took no further part in the match.

Tamil Nadu women were expected to give Chattisgarh a run for their money, instead they turned out to be a damp squib of a squad.

A 10-2 start in the first half set the tone for their drubbing from the hands of Chattisgarh, who recently won the Federation cup.

One expected to see P Anitha or Adhirai, but the Tamil Nadu team has none of the stars rendering the tournament a two-horse race between Maharashtra and Chattisgarh.

Following are the results: Mens: Services 92 (Narendra 23, Shambaji Kadam 17, Nixon 15) bt Western Railway Nikhil Chopra 11). Womens: Chattisgarh 76 (M. Pushpa 23, Kavita 13, Anju Lakra 10) bt Tamil Nadu 55 (S. Kokila 18, Sunita Surin 11, A. Vidyamani 10).

-- (UNI) -- 03SPB2.xml

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