Chennai: ONGC reached the semifinals of the third annual all-India invitation basketball tournament for the Jeppiaar Trophy, with a 91-77 win over Chennai Customs in a Pool ‘B' match at the JJ Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.

This is ONGC's third straight victory in the group. It was sharp and accurate in its passes from the first whistle.

Riazuddin showed his class in ample measure with some wonderful lay-ups, while Mohit Bhandari dribbled, passed and scored with a sense of authority.

Anoop was consistent in basketing. Trideep Rai took time to settle down, but kept scoring. With three back-to-back defeats, Customs is out of the tournament.

Earlier, strong contender IOB made mince meat of ICF 71-40 in a Pool ‘A' match. IOB had a head-start, taking a 17-2 lead towards the end of the first quarter. S. Aravindh, as the pivot guard, made the right passes. Vineeth and Prasanna converted most of the chances that came their way.

There was never really a fight at any point of time. IOB has two victories and a loss.

Punjab Police is in the same boat as IOB. The match between the two on Wednesday will determine who will join Sathyabama in the knockout stage.

In the women's section, South East Central Railway and Southern Railway, with two victories each in the four-team league, are set to face each other in the last league match on Wednesday, and will again meet in the summit clash on Thursday.

The results:

Men: ‘A': IOB 71 (Vineeth 12, Prasanna 10) bt ICF 40 (Srinivasan 10); Punjab Police 73 (Amrit Pal Singh 26, Amrit Pal Singh 17) bt Rail Coach Factory 68 (Ashutosh Kumar 23, Vijender Kumar 30).

‘B': ONGC 91 (Riazuddin 27, Anoop 19, Trideep Rai 18) bt Chennai Customs 77 (John de Platto 26, Vinoth 26, Yathan Sharma 12).

Women: South East Central Rly 76 (Anju 14, Seema 15, Aruna 14) bt Tata Steel 58 (Poonam Chaturvedi 20, Pushpa Mishak 16); S. Rly 74 (Kokila 19, Renjini Peter 14, Apoorva 13) bt Central Rly 57 (Manisha 16, Anu 14) .