Junior National Basketball Championship: Chhattisgarh girls continue winning record; Punjab girls beat Madhya Pradesh

Punjab (in white) vs Madhya Pradesh (purple)

The evening matches of Day 4 of the 66th Junior National Basketball Championship had two level 1 girls’ games featuring some of the tournament’s best players. Defending champions Chhattisgarh girls faced an unbeaten Karnataka girls team that was led by Bhandavya Mahesha, who played on the senior women’s team at the FIBA Asia Championship earlier this year.

As expected, the match for tight for the first three quarters, with the Chhattisgarh holding a slim lead. Their captain Riya Verma was on a roll leading all scorers with 35 points. Bhandavya too had a good game with 21 points and her teammate Bhoomika contributed 21 points as well. But come fourth quarter, the Chhattisgarh girls switched to a higher gear and outscored Karnataka 30 to 16. Chhattisgarh maintained their winning record with a 93-73 victory.

In the other level 1 girls’ game, home team Punjab girls took on Madhya Pradesh. With Somi Kumari and Gagandeep Kaur carrying a bulk of the scoring load for Punjab, the home team built an early lead and never took their foot off the accelerator. Despite a sluggish second and third quarter, Punjab maintained the upper hand and finished the game strong with a 71-60 victory. Sakshi Pandey scored 30 points for Madhya Pradesh in a losing effort.

The remaining two loser knockout quarterfinals for the boys also took place yesterday evening with Himachal Pradesh comfortably beating Goa, while Bihar registered a win against Puducherry.

In the first half of Day 5, the Karnataka girls bounced back from their previous loss with an emphatic 80-37 victory over Delhi. Bhandavya and Bhoomika scored a combined 41 points in the game for Karnataka. Maharashtra girls defeated Haryana by a good margin 90 to 65. Despite conceding a 7-point lead in the first quarter, Maharashtra outscored their opponent in the remaining 3 quarters led by Carina’s 25 points.

In the boys’ level 1 games, Rajasthan continued their good run with a 91-75 win over Madhya Pradesh. Their go-to player on offense, Mahipal Singh, had 32 points in today’s game for Rajasthan.

Results from Day 4 after 6:00 pm

Girls:

Level 1:

Group A:

Chhattisgarh (Riya Verma 35, Vandana 15, Megha Singh 11) bt Karnataka (Bhandavya H.M. 21, Bhoomika P. 21) 93-73 (22-19, 17-17, 24-21, 30-16)

Punjab (Somi Kumari 21, Gagandeep Kaur 14, Sandhya Kumari 13) bt Madhya Pradesh (Sakshi Pandey 30, Anubha Thakur 14, Shivani Barman 8) 71-60 (25-15, 11-13, 13-17, 22-15)

Boys:

Loser Knockout Quarterfinals:

Himachal Pradesh (Arvind 22, Sawan 14) bt Goa (Velly Rodrigues 11, Roy Pereira 11) 64-33 (17-10, 11-10, 28-9, 8-4)

Bihar (Atchuthan 20, Barani Dharan 14) bt Puducherry (Vishnu K. 23, Nitesh K. 21) 66-53 (17-16, 13-14, 12-11, 24-12)

Results from morning session of Day 5

Girls:

Level 1:

Group A:

Karnataka (Bhandavya H.M. 21, Bhoomika P. 20) bt Delhi (Pallavi Kumari 12, Sushantika C. 10, Raginee Jha 7) 80-37(23-9, 20-13, 16-8, 21-7)

Group B:

Maharashtra (Carina 25, Shreya 19, Priyanka 15) bt Haryana (Bharti 20, Namrata 18, Garima 7) 90-65 (17-24, 18-13, 26-16, 29-15)

Qualifying matches (winner decides opponent in pre-quarterfinal):

Tamil Nadu (M. Nishanthi 14, C. Aparna 14, K. Prithi 13) bt Rajasthan (Kamlesh 10, Prathibha 8) 63-39 (19-11, 16-6, 12-14, 16-5)

Loser Knockout Semifinals:

Himachal Pradesh (Vishali 18, Monika Devi 15) bt Jammu and Kashmir (Pearl Sharma 16, Aashima 5) 54-34 (11-6, 11-7, 9-12, 23-9)

Boys:

Level 1:

Group A:

Rajasthan (Mahipal Singh 32, Yogesh Kanderiya 15) bt Madhya Pradesh (Mithun Das 35, Gautam Yadav 11) 91-75 (23-20, 20-16, 22-20, 26-19)

Qualifying matches (winner decides opponent in pre-quarterfinal):

Chandigarh (Amit 28, Abhishek 18, Jatin 14) bt Uttar Pradesh (Shivan 12, Atal Rai 10, Ashutosh 9) 78-53 (13-10, 18-12, 27-11, 20-20)