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Keralites Shine for other States
2018 Senior National Basketball Championship for Men and Women at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Wednesday saw hosts Tamil Nadu (men)Under Serbian coach Milan Opacic and Indian Railways (Women) after a gap lifted championship trophies with victories over Services and Chhattisgarh respectively.

The 68th edition of Senior National, organized by the Tamil Nadu Basketball Association (TNBA) and the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), is India’s most prestigious basketball championship. The Championship featured the best basketball talent from 31 men’s and 26 women’s teams from Indian States and Union territories.

For a major stretch in the past decade, Indian Railways were nearly untouchable at the Senior Nationals, seemingly winning the tournament every year. Their reign at the top was finally stopped by Chhattisgarh who beat Railways in the 2014 last Year by Kerala. The two teams squared off at the final once again on Wednesday, The Railways teams this time came with a much more preparations with more than two months preparations led 43-33 at halftime, and then raced off in the second half to a comfortable 100-71 victory on the back of captain Navaneetha PU (30) and veterans Renjini peter with 19 and Anitha with 12 points and Sruthy Menon contributing 14 points for the victory . Chhattisgarh depends mainly on India’s tallest women’s basketball player 7 ft 2 inches Poonjam Chaturvedi, as she scored 27 for Chhattisgarh in the loss, Anju Lakra also scored 17 against her former team.

In men Division Tamil Nadu, Railways, Services all came with much-prepared camps The Tamil Nadu came with a 45-day camp, under the watchful eyes of head coach Milan Opacic and assistant coach Aleksandar Virijevic from Serbia. The team which played a disciplined one have improved a lot and have adapted to different game styles and game sense. The Indian Railways who also had more than two Months of Preparation and has paid the dividends as they finished up the third spot and has beaten Punjab who had a strong line up on the cards with NBA draft Satanam Sing , T J Shahi Jagdeep Deep,Arsh Preeth etc and services which was relegated to level 2 last year came with a much prepared outfit with Months and Months-long camps.

The Men’s final was a closer affair, pitting the well-prepared host team Tamil Nadu against the old heads from Services., expectations were high for TN to defend their home court. The teams went back and forth in the first half and TN held only a slim 41-40 lead at halftime. After the break, however, TN’s finally began to create some separation against their gritty opponents and pulled away to win 94-86. International forward Rikin Pethani scored 25 for the winning side and Justin added 16. The veteran duo of Joginder Singh (23) and Narender Grewal (20) led Services in the loss.

Dominance of Punjabi’s at the National
Even though Punjab a strong team of cards but never play to the expectations but in Men Punjab players show their dominance Satnam and Arshpreet, for Punjab Palpreeth, Gagandeep for railways Yadwiner and Arjun Singh for Utharkhand

The absence of superstars Amjoth and Amarjoth who are doing their duties abroad for Professional clubs and Injuries to Vishesh and Trideep had the bad patch of the Tournament.
Malayalee Dominance in Women
Kerala Players playing for other states also made a impact in this championship The evergreen Renjini Peter and Sruthy Menon for railways Roshini and Priyanka Prabhakar for Karnataka Nivyaraj for West Bengal all dominated the women group while Men also saw Muralee Krishna and Anoop for Utharkhand, Jijin and Manu for Karnataka Issac for Services all played a stellar role for their respective states
We have to acknowledge Tamilnadu Basketball Association Under Secretary Adhav Arjuna (now Our hon Chairman also ) and his company who had made this championship a memorable one giving Air-conditioned accommodation as well as foods to all 900 players, 200 officials, 150 technical officials, 150 technical officials and 200 coaching staff that participating in this championship, and another feather to basketball federation of India under president Govindaraj and Chandramukhi Sharma for making it possible at Chennai.
Punjab
Final Scores

1. Women: Indian Railways -100 (Navaneetha PU 30, Renjini Peter 19,Sruthimenon 14,Anitha Paul durai12,sithamani Tudu11) bt. Chhattisgarh -71 (Poonam Chaturvedi 27, Anju Lakra 17) [19-16, 24-17, 34-21, 24-17].
2. Men: Tamil Nadu-94 (Rikin Pethani 25, Justin Nanaraj16, Prasanna Venkatesh 13, P jeevanathan12,A Aravind10) bt. Services-86(Joginder Singh 23, Narender Grewal 20, Jai Ram Jat 15.Issac Thomas 12) [20-22, 21-18, 27-23, 26-23].