IND - Undefeated Chhattisgarh, Southern Railway, and ONGC cruise into Federation Cup semis

RAIPUR, India (Federation Cup) - Home side Chhattisgarh, Southern Railway, and ONGC continued their winning streaks to enter the semi-finals at the 25th IMG-Reliance Federation Cup Basketball Championship for Men & Women at Raipur on Sunday.

Trailing by 16 after the first quarter against Delhi, Chhattisgarh’s women showed their resilience and used the support of a loud home crowd to win their third consecutive game, 86-65.

Chhattisgarh booked their berth as the top seeded team from their group to enter the semi-final in the process.

Delhi started well, feeding off the hot shooting of Prashanti Singh, Akanksha Singh, and Raspreet Sidhu. Chhattisgarh, meanwhile, made uncharacteristic mistakes.

But the tables turned in the second quarter when, thanks to the enthusiastic crowd and some suffocating defense, Chhattisgarh went on a 14-1 run and led 36-35 at halftime.

The swing in momentum carried over into the second half as the home side outscored their opponents 29-9 in the third quarter and tured the game into a blowout.

Anju Lakra had 24 points, Pushpa M added 22 and Bharti Netan finished with 17 in the winning cause.

Prashanti Singh led Delhi with 23 points and Akanksha Singh added 16.

Chhattisgarh face Kerala in their semi-final on Monday evening. Delhi will have a difficult game against Southern Railway.

Meanwhile, in the men's action, ONGC made it three wins in as many games by crushing Vijaya Bank 74-40 to cruise into the semi-finals as the top team in Pool B.

ONGC took advantage of their size and used some balance scoring. Trideep Rai paced them with 22 points, S Sridhar had 18 and Riyazuddin chipped in with 17.

They will face Western Railway in an exciting semi-final game on Monday evening.

In the men's other game, IOB (Chennai) saw off Billai Steel Plant 72-63 behind 23 points from Mathew W Revi. The result means they take on Indian Army in Monday's semi-final.

Women’s team Southern Railway are also undefeated in the tournament, comfortably winning all three of their games.

On Sunday, they got the better of Kerala 82-56 as Geethu Anna Jose had a dominating performance against her home state with 28 points.

Karnataka Women had an easy time against Andhra Pradesh, whom they beat 80-37.

Maharashtra Women started off extremely strong against a hazed Tamil Nadu side, taking a 22-2 lead at the end of the first quarter and that set the tone for a 79-31 demolition. Tamil Nadu struggled to get anything going offensively.

Maharashtra played their most efficient game of the tournament and eased to a 79-31 victory. Shireen Limaye had 16 points for Maharashtra.

25th IMG-Reliance Federation Cup Basketball Championship for Men & Women

Semi-Finals (Monday 14th February)
Women: Southern Railway v Delhi; Chhattisgarh v Kerala
Men: Indian Army v IOB (Chennai); ONGC v Western Railway

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FIBA