58th Kerala Senior State Championships Day Four: Kottayam women rally to join Trivandrum and Palakkad in semis

Last year’s runners up Trivandrum women, led by India internationals, Stephy Nixon (centre) and Jeena PS, have faced little competition so far. Image Copyright: Ekalavyas

‘Elevate Sports’ Daily Wrap

With eight quarterfinals being played in a single day, it was a busy time for the organisors of the 58th Kerala Senior State Championship. All the matches were held at the Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur, with the college crowd constituting majority of the viewing audience.

After being thoroughly outplayed in the first quarter, Kottayam women rallied powerfully in the next three to send Ernakulam packing. Poojamol KS top scored for the winners with 30 points. Earlier in the morning, the two favourites, Thiruvananthapuram and Palakkad also progressed to the semifinals.

In men’s competition, Pathanamthitta battled back in the last ten minutes to win against Palakkad. Against all the three elite teams it has played so far: Pathanamthitta today and Ernakulam and Kollam in the league stages, Palakkad has always matched its opponents for three quarters while losing the plot in the remaining one. In this match too, their jitters in the final ten minutes cost them the match. Their temperament is something they will have to address if they wish to progress to the final four in the coming years.

A word regarding scheduling: In order to avoid late starts, it would have helped had the tournament been stretched to an extra day, or else more matches been played at the second venue (Municipal Stadium, Thrissur). Considering that the majority of the 31 league and the 15 odd knockout matches are being held on a single court (Sree Kerala Varma College), inevitably every single day two matches are tipped off after 10: 00pm and continue on till 12: 30am.

Note: We await confirmation that the heavily favoured Ernakulam and Trivandrum men’s teams have won their late night quarterfinal matches against Kannur and Thrissur respectively. Also, at the time of filing this report, the QF match between Kottayam and Kollam men was in progress, with Kollam leading in the first quarter.

Silver Medalists to be Honoured

Later this evening at 6pm a special presentation ceremony will be held to honour the Kerala Sate Junior women who won the Silver Medal at the 64th Junior National Basketball Championship in Cuttack, Odisha last September.

Day 4 Quarterfinal Results (Saturday, 6th December 2013) brought to you by ‘The Furtado Initiative’

Women

Thiruvananthapuram 64 (Jeena PS 13, Stephy Nixon 11, Rosmy Thomas 10) bt Thrissur 30 (Grima Merlin Varghese11)

Palakkad 47 (Asha Abraham10) bt Kozhikode 37 (Anu Thomas 13)

Kannur 73 (Premi P Lal 17, Amjanna PG 10, Riya Susuan Chacko 10)

Kottayam 67 (Poojamol KS 30, Minnu Marium Joy 10) bt Erankulum 51 (Libina MJ 22)

Men

Pathanamthitta 75 (Nicewin M 22, Edwin Ervin 16, Vineeth Mohan 12) bt Palakkad 69 (Sreejith N Nair 17, Jijo Thankachan16, Abhilash KM 14)

Semifinal Matches for Day 5 (Saturday, 7th December 2013)

Women

Palakkad v. Kottayam

Trivandrum v. Kannur

Men

Ernakulam v. Pathanamthitta

Trivandrum v. Kollam/Kottayam

For details on the tournament structure, fixtures and pools, read our introductory article.

Republished with permission from ekalavyas.com. Original post.