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Commendable show: Vaishnavi scored 15 points for the defending champion.
| Photo Credit: RAGU R
Indian Railways women outclassed Karnataka 95-65 to post their second win in the 75th senior National basketball championship at the Nehru Indoor Stadium here on Monday.
The only time the contest was evenly matched was in the opening five minutes when both sides were level 8-8. But Railways then sprinted away to a small lead, winning the next nine points before closing out the quarter 22-11.
The defending champions then went on the offensive, led by Vaishnavi Yadav’s fine layups while Pushpa Senthilkumar netted in a few free throws and a three-pointer as their side established a 39-17 lead.
The Railways outfit was stronger on defence, with higher steals led by Dharshini Thirunavukkarasu and P. Priyanka; the former also led in assists.
In the third quarter, Railways’ K.B. Harshitha, who came in as a substitute, made instant impact, executing precise jump shots and lay-ups (16 points). As the game started to slip away, Karnataka took ambitious chances as H.M. Bhandavya and Sruthi Arvind nailed a treble of three-pointers each. The title holders, though, had by then built a 19-point lead, which they consolidated easily in the final quarter to post a facile win.
In the men’s section, too, Railways made it two out of two, with a 96-70 win over Uttar Pradesh to sit at the top of Group B.
Top results: Women: Group A: Indian Railways 95 (K.B. Harshitha 16, Vaishnavi Yadav 15, Pushpa Senthilkumar 12, Manmeeth Kaur 12) bt Karnataka 65 (Sruthi Arvind 24, H.M. Bhandavya 18, Nidhi Umesh 14).
Delhi 68 (Prakriti Ranjan 18, Suman 13, Simran Kaur 12, Preethi Kumari 11) bt Chhattisgarh 55 (Priya Sharma 20).
Group B: Kerala 88 (V.J. Jayalakshmi 20, Swapna Merin Jose 14, Kavitha Jose 12, S. Susan 10) bt Madhya Pradesh 34.
Men: Group A: Karnataka 94 (Pratyanshu Tomar 22, Aaron Monterio 20, Aravind Arumugam 14, Shashikant Rai 14) bt Services 75 (Sunil Rathee 18, Ajay Singh 18, Hemant Sheoran 12, Himanshu Hooda 10, T.S. Santosh 10).
Group B: Indian Railways 96 (Kanwar Gurbaz Singh Sandhu 15, Tushal Singh 15, Palpreet Singh 14, Princepal Singh 14, Sahaij Pratap Singh 12) bt Uttar Pradesh 70 (Harsh Dagar 20, Kushal Singh 14, Prince Tyagi 11).
Delhi 94 (Jeethandar Singh 23, Ayush Sharma 18, Arjun Singh 13, Rachit 13, Issac T. Thomas 11) bt Chandigarh 82 (Aditya 35, Gaurav Kumar 17, Gautam Yadav 10).
Published – January 05, 2026 07:44 pm IST
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Senior National basketball championship | Indian Railways has a field day
