Railways, Tamil Nadu shine on 1st day of national basketball

New Delhi: Railways and Tamil Nadu dominated proceedings on the opening day of the National Basketball Championship with both the states registering comprehensive wins over their respective opponents here on Tuesday.

Reigning champions in the women`s event, Railways rode on Geethu Anna Jose`s 26 points to inflict an embarrassing 112-48 defeat on Andhra Pradesh. Tamil Nadu stamped their authority with a 85-61 win over Uttar Pradesh on the first day of the eight-day meet matches of whose were held simultaneously at the Talkatora Stadium and at the Modern School. The experienced duo of Mihir Pandey (24) and CV Dinesh (21) proved too much for Uttar Pradesh. Hosts Delhi too got off to a good start defeating Haryana 82-46. Pradeep scored 19 points for Delhi.Services beat Kerala 85-57, while Uttarakhand rode on Trideep Rai`s 17 points to get the better of Karnataka. Major results Women: Indian Railway 112 (Geethu Anna Jose 26) bt Andhra Pradesh 48 (Mandha Meshram 15); Tamil Nadu 88 (Kohila 13) bt Uttar Pradesh 34 (Ranjana Singh 17). Men: Tamil Nadu 85 (Mihir Pandey 24, CV Dinesh 21) bt Andhra Pradesh (Liju 14); Delhi 82 (Pradeep 19) bt Haryana 46 (Sanjay Rathee 16); Services 85 (Narendra 29, Vinod KR 20) bt Kerala 57; Uttarakhand 65 (Trideep Rai 17) bt Karnataka (Arvind A 14). PTI