CALCUTTA: Railway cagers stole the limelight when they retained their titles both in the men’s and women’s sections of the 41st Senior National Basketball Championship at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here.

In the finals of the tournament while the holder’s railway men convincingly defeated runners-up Services 96-72 to win the Todd Memorial Cup for a total of five times and four times in a row, champions Railway women also drubbed runners-up Punjab 85-53 in another tame affair. This was railway women’s third successive win in the championship. With this victory they bagged the Prince Basalat Jha Trophy, also for a total of five times so far.

Punjab, who splendidly rallied back to pap Kerala girls in the semifinal, was virtually no match to their far superior opponents. They were, however, deprived of the service of agile pivot Rajinder Kaur, who was indisposed.

Railways, on the other hand, dominated the show right from the jump ball and established a 31-point lead in the first half with some find display by Apara Ghosh, Prasanna Kuman and Pratibha Kumari.

The Punjab girls, however, collected themselves in the second half and put up a brilliant fight collecting 40 points as against 41 points by the railways girls.

After the breather Punjab changed their cling hefty Prabajot Gill aod lanky Surinder Kaur. The tactics paid dividend as Prabajot Gill fired as many as 22 points while Surinder Kaur 16 with some immacuiate camer.

But it was too late for Punjab as they failed to wipe-out the 30 plus lead earned by the Railways in the first half. The Railway girls looked bit complacent in the second half but they maintained a professional approach keeping the scoreboard moving and finally clinched the issue with a 32-point lead.

For Railways Aparna Ghosh was the top-scorer with 1S points and was followed by Prasanna Kumari (12) and Praubba Kuman (10).

With this hat-trick, Railways won the title for the fifth time, while for Punjab, seven times champions; it was their second successive defeat in the final.

Article extracted from this publication >> January 11, 1991