Chittoor: Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) from Chennai began their campaign in the men’s section in the 32nd Federation Cup basketball championship with a facile 85-70 win over the Madras Sappers (Madras Engineer Group -MEG) from Bangalore at Chittoor on Thursday. The match saw a lot of fireworks as both the teams took it hard against each other. But the internationally experienced squad of IOB took away the game from MEG’s reach in the second half.

Later in the day, ONGC Dehradun was facing Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP). There were a lot of expectations from this game as Vishesh Bhriguvanshi was hopeful to make a comeback after almost 6 months due to a knee injury. Bhriguvanshi entered the game in the third quarter and displayed some crisp passing but wasn’t able to score but the defending champions ONGC took an comfortable win over SAAP.

In the women’s section, Mysuru girl Navaneetha excelled for Karnataka by scoring 16 points in their team’s 69-55 win over Chhattisgarh.

Results

MEN: Indian Overseas Bank (Sivabalan 15pts, Aravind 13 pts, Vineeth 13 pts) bt MEG Bangalore (Amal 25 pts, Rahul 17 pts) 85-70[30-18, 09-18, 29-19, 17-15]; ONGC (Muin Bek 20pts, Yadwinder 14 pts, Arjun 12 pts) bt S.A.A.P (Naveen 19 pts) 74-42 [24-11, 18-11, 21-11, 11-09]; Customs Cochin (Nikhil 22 pts, Basil 15 pts) bt BSF Jodhpur (Bharatdeep 19 pts, Gurwinder Singh 18 pts) 78-54 [29-20, 07-11, 26-10, 16-13]; Punjab Police (Sukhdeep 26 pts, Dilpreet 19 pts, Ranbir 16 pts) bt Hissar Club (Vikas 24 pts, Deepak 22 pts) 91-73 [20-24, 24-17, 21-17, 26-15].

WOMEN: Tamil Nadu (Rajeshwari 13 pts) bt Andhra Pradesh (Padmavathi 9 pts) 46-26 [14-04, 16-04, 04-08, 12-10]; Maharashtra (Sruthi 22 pts, Mugdha 9 pts) bt Telangana (Mrunalini 8 pts, Manasa 7 pts) 55-26 [23-10, 01-08, 18-03, 13-05]; Karnataka (Navaneetha 16 pts, Priyanka 16pts) bt Chhattisgarh (Sakshi 27 pts, Gulabhsha 16 pts) 69-55[15-15, 24-15, 19-11, 11-14]; Eastern Railways (Madhu 10 pts, Salma 9 pts) bt Delhi (Vidhi 07 pts) 57-21 [17-03, 10-03, 14-07, 16-08]; Kerala (Chippy 09 pts, Shilji 08 pts) bt Andhra Pradesh (Jyothi 12 pts, Padmavathi 13 pts) 66-34 [21-10, 16-09, 19-05, 10-10]; TN (Vandana 17 pts) bt Chhattisgarh (Sangeetha 8 pts) 73-37 [16-05, 19-10,  27-10, 11-12].