Junior National Basketball Championship: Defending champions through to semis; Kerala girls end Tamil Nadu unbeaten run

Chhattisgarh (light blue) vs Haryana (dark blue)

Day 6 of the 66th Junior National Basketball Championship at Ludhiana, Punjab had the pre-quarterfinals and quarterfinals in store. Home team Punjab boys bounced back from the loss yesterday evening to beat Kerala in their quarterfinal match. The first half of the game was an even contest and Kerala even took a slim lead in the third quarter. But the fourth quarter belonged to Punjab as they outscored Kerala 36-16. Rahul Mehla scored a game-high 27 points to lead his team to the win. The Punjab girls team also advanced to the semi-finals defeating Uttar Pradesh in their quarterfinal game. The game had a similar story as the Punjab boys’ quarterfinal, with the match being close for the first three quarters. But come the fourth quarter, Punjab girls switched to a higher gear and ran away with the game. Gagandeep Kaur scored 22 points for her team as Punjab registered a 67-54 victory.

Tamil Nadu boys have also booked a semi-final berth with a victory against the Maharashtra boys’ team. Maharashtra could not produce at the same level as they did yesterday evening. Tamil Nadu shot at the rate of 52% from the field and their efficient offense gave them the advantage. R. Hari Ram had a huge game with 34 points and 10 rebounds. Tamil Nadu centre Surya dominated in the paint and ended up scoring a double-double with 29 points and 12 rebounds.

The Maharashtra girls also ended their campaign in the tournament with a loss in the quarterfinal at the hands of Karnataka. Karnataka made short work of their opponent led by their most consistent players Bhandavya and Bhoomika. Maharashtra was not able to keep up with the Karnataka offense and the game ended with Karnataka clinching a 60-34 victory to advance to the semifinals.

Tamil Nadu and Haryana girls won their pre-quarterfinal matches against Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan respectively to advance to the quarterfinals scheduled for later in the day. The Haryana and Chandigarh boys also made it to the quarterfinals beating Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh respectively.

Later in the evening, Tamil Nadu girls, who advanced from Level 2 to Level 1, faced an unbeaten Kerala side in the quarterfinals. But a tired Tamil Nadu side failed to advance to the next round. Kerala started the game strong on a balanced team scoring effort and withstood a furious comeback attempt by the Tamil Nadu girls to clinch a semi-final spot.

Defending champions Chhattisgarh girls also booked a date in the semi-finals tomorrow defeating an undersized Haryana side. Haryana stuck to its small ball approach, but the size and speed of the Chhattisgarh team was too much to handle. Chhattisgarh captain Riya Verma scored 26 points in the victory.

Results from Day 6 up to 3 pm

Girls:

Quarterfinals:

Punjab (Gagandeep Kaur 22, Somi Kumari 20) bt Uttar Pradesh (Vaishnavi Yadav 20, Bhavya Tyagi 11) 67-54 (20-11, 6-11, 16-21, 25-11)

Karnataka (Bhandavya HM 25, Bhoomika P. 19) bt Maharashtra (Carina Clarence 11) 60-34 (17-9, 9-5, 16-5, 18-15)

Kerala (Amritha 14, Kavitha 10, Mayukha 8) bt Tamil Nadu (S. Gayathri 13, M. Nishanthi 12) 81-70 (23-17, 26-17, 17-16, 15-20)

Chhattisgarh (Riya Verma 26, Vandana 16) bt Haryana (Surya 13, Bharti 6) 61-31 (20-12, 14-5, 16-8, 11-6)

Pre-quarterfinals:

Tamil Nadu (V. Srividhya 36, K. Prithi 7) bt Madhya Pradesh (Sakshi Pandey 39, Shivangi Usrite 13, Anubha Thakur 13) 78-71(20-20, 15-10, 18-24, 25-17)

Haryana (Surya 17, Namrata 14, Garima 12) bt Rajasthan (Kamlesh 22, Pratibha 5) 51-40 (21-9, 12-6, 8-4, 10-21)

Loser Knockout Final:

Gujarat (Arti Godhani 17, Daxa Vaghjiyani 17, RA Dubey 11) bt Himachal Pradesh (Aarushi Sharma 14, Vaishali 10, Monica Devi 6) 47-39 (12-6, 6-9, 14-9, 15-15)

Level 1 to Level 2:

Delhi (Pallavi Kumari 22, Raginee Jha 12) bt West Bengal (Paulami 10, Diya 8) 51-33 (11-6, 7-7, 12-10, 21-10)

Boys:

Quarterfinals:

Punjab (Rahul Mehla 27, Sahil 17, Ajit Poonia 17) bt Kerala (Akhil 23, Antony 13, Sugeeth 11) 90-73 (21-18, 18-21, 15-18, 36-16)

Tamil Nadu (R. Hariram 34, A. Daniel Richards 28, P. Baladhaneshwar 15) bt Maharashtra (Sayyed Mohd. Yousuf Asif 29, Mogradia Sufiyan Umer 16) 99-82 (26-22, 23-28, 24-15, 26-17)

Pre-quarterfinals:

Haryana (Deepak (jersey no. 15) 30, Sonu 23) bt Uttar Pradesh (Ashwini 10, Shivan 10) 76-50 (18-15, 21-12, 18-13, 19-10)

Chandigarh (Abhishek 25, Amit 18, Abhishek Choudhary 18) bt Madhya Pradesh (Mahank 13, Gautam 12, Mithun Das 11) 68-56(9-14, 19-6, 15-14, 25-22)

Level 1 to Level 2:

Karnataka (Pranay 25, Karthik Baji 11) bt Andhra Pradesh (Naveen Sagar 12, Siva Durga Prasad 7) 55-37 (12-18, 21-2, 10-5, 12-12)