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On Day 3 of the 32nd Youth National Basketball Championship being held at Bhavnagar, Gujarat, the games in the morning session were packed with strong teams. The Tamil Nadu boys continued their surge with another victory, this time against Delhi. TN captain P. Baladhaneshwar again showed his MVP-calibre with 25 points, leading all scorers. The ease of the victory enabled Tamil Nadu to showcase their bench strength in the game.
The other Level 1 boys’ games were also one-sided affairs, as Punjab handily beat last year’s runners up Kerala. Sahil and Kanwar Gurbaz Singh from Punjab had good games for their team with 22 and 18 points respectively. The Haryana boys picked up their second victory of the tournament defeating a comparatively undersized Maharashtra team. Chhattisgarh boys fell to the Uttar Pradesh team that registered a 59-39 victory. The play of the UP boys has been one of the surprises of the tournament so far.
In the Level 1 girls’ games on Day 3 morning, the Maharashtra girls registered their second victory of the tournament against the Punjab team by an impressive 32-point margin. Shruti Vasant Sherigar and Neha Shanu were joint top scorers for Maharashtra with 18 points each. In the other game, Chhattisgarh stuck to their fast paced style of play and picked up a 53-44 victory against last year’s runners up Kerala girls. Chhattisgarh was led by Gulabsha Ali’s 21 points.
In the second half of the day, the Chhattisgarh girls played another game against Karnataka. Gulabsha Ali top scored for her team yet again with 27 points and Chhattisgarh ended up with a comfortable 47-24 victory. The Chandigarh girls also handily defeated their opponent Rajasthan 36 to 15.
In the boys’ games, Kerala faced Maharashtra in a cracker of a contest. Both teams went back-and-forth and the game saw multiple lead changes. In the end, Kerala held on for a 1-point victory 59 to 58. The Chhattisgarh boys faced neighbours Madhya Pradesh and displayed strong defense in the paint coupled with strong drives to the basket. Led by guard Vinod Rajak, Chhattisgarh bounced back from the morning loss to register a 51-32 victory.
Results from Day 3 up to 7:30 p.m.
Girls:
Level 1:
Group A:
Maharashtra (Shruti Vasant Sherigar 18, Neha Shanu 18) bt Punjab (Rajandeep Kaur 10, Lovepreet Kaur 9) 67-35 (26-7, 6-12, 20-12, 15-4)
Group B:
Chhattisgarh (Gulabsha Ali 21, Jyoti Kumari 17) bt Kerala (Adhikanop 17, Sylvia Grace Shiboo 11, Reyna K. 8) 53-44 (10-13, 11-10, 9-6, 23-15)
Chhattisgarh (Gulabsha Ali 27, Jyoti Kumari 8) bt Karnataka (Aastha 8) 47-24 (12-4, 19-6, 5-3, 11-11)
Level 2:
Group C:
Himachal Pradesh (Muskan 11, Pallavi N. 8) bt Jammu and Kashmir (Ishita 9) 45-21 (11-0, 11-9, 11-3, 12-9)
Group D:
West Bengal (Paramita Ghosh 24, Mala Arong 14) bt Puducherry (Sandhya 14, Aiswarya 7) 54-33 (15-14, 16-5, 9-9, 14-5)
Group E:
Chandigarh (Amrit 16, Palak 10) bt Rajasthan (Usha Acharaj 7, Himanshi 6) 36-15 (10-7, 8-2, 8-2, 10-4)
Boys:
Level 1:
Group A:
Tamil Nadu (P. Baladhaneshwar 25, C. Joshua Rozario 16, K. Ajith Kumar 12) bt Delhi (Hansraj 20, Sorav 11, Manik 9) 76-60(24-10, 9-8, 22-10, 21-32)
Uttar Pradesh (Pankaj 18, Dheeraj Maurya 10) bt Chhattisgarh (Virendra 10, Salim Ali 10) 59-39 (21-11, 10-7, 10-12, 18-9)
Chhattisgarh (Vinod Rajak 17, Gajendra 10) bt Madhya Pradesh (Harshvardhan 9, Manoj Singh 7, Vicki Batham 7) 51-32 (10-12, 6-13, 18-4, 17-3)
Group B:
Haryana (Ankit Toshi 19, Rinku 16) bt Maharashtra (Sameer Qureshi 23) 71-48 (18-11, 11-16, 24-14, 18-7)
Punjab (Sahil 22, Kanwar Gurbaz Singh 18, Parmod Pal 17) bt Kerala (Joshua George 12, Jithin Paul 9) 74-43 (19-16, 24-14, 18-6, 13-7)
Kerala (Muhammed S. 24, Joshua J. George 14) bt Maharashtra (Faisan Khan 22, Gurprem Singh 12) 59-58 (12-15, 15-9, 14-16, 18-18)
Level 2:
Group C:
Jammu and Kashmir (Abhinav 11, Shivam 11) bt Puducherry (Gurumurthy 29) 51-46 (13-13, 2-10, 15-8, 21-15)
Group D:
Gujarat (Karan Pithadiya 14, Satyajeetsinh 8) bt Telangana (Priyank 9) 53-21 (13-8, 10-3, 12-6, 18-4)
West Bengal (S. Hussain 13, P. Mondal 11) bt Bihar (Raunak Kumar 7, Rahul Kumar 6) 55-24 (13-8, 11-7, 22-8, 9-1)
Group E:
Uttarakhand (Vaibhav Choudhary 28, Prakhar Sharma 18, Dheeraj Negi 12) bt Goa (Shaun 22, Manjesh 14, Roy 12) 63-60 (14-15, 13-13, 11-11, 25-21)
