Southern Railway women clinch title after one-sided victory

Defending champions Southern Railway women stamped their authority over Chhattisgarh in a one-sided final of the 28th Ramu Memorial Basketball tournament at the Indian Gymkhana court here today.
The Railway women, who had lost to their rivals 54-55 in a round robin clash earlier, outclassed their rivals 64-39 to retain the title which they had last won two years ago.
The tournament did not take place last year.
International Anita Pauldurai and R Rajapriya put up stand-out displays for the Railways who took an early 15-4 lead in the first quarter and steadily increased it to run away easy victors.

At half time, the winners led 33-15 and increased the lead further to 51-25 by the end of the penultimate quarter.
Anita accounted for 17 points while the taller Rajapriya got 20 and the two women accounted for 9 and 6 rebounds respectively.

S Kokila was the other player to shine for the winners with a tally of 15 points (and 8 rebounds) and good support was also given by M Adhirai (9 points and 6 rebounds).
For the losers, Sangeeta Mandal and Shoshan Tirkey, who sunk two three-pointers in close succession in the last quarter, tried their best, but the duo did not get sufficient support from their other teammates barring L Deepa (8).

The winners took home Rs 60,000 while the runners-up pocketed Rs 30,000.