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The last day of the group stages at the 66th Junior National Basketball Championship at Ludhiana, Punjab produced two stellar boys’ matches in the late evening. The Maharashtra boys took on home team Punjab in their last league game. For the first time in the tournament, the Punjab boys were on the backfoot. Maharashtra’s point guard Sameer Qureshi controlled the tempo of the game beautifully and put his teammates in positions to score.
Punjab had a poor first half and could not recover in the second. The play of Maharashtra’s big man Tavish was impressive against the big Punjab lineup. He top scored for his team with 17 points. In the end, Maharashtra pulled off a 73-66 victory and advanced to the quarterfinals to face Tamil Nadu.
The final match of Day 5 was a high-scoring contest between two of the best teams in the tournament. Delhi and Tamil Nadu took on each other in the last league stage game. Tamil Nadu started the game hot, scoring 32 points in the first quarter itself. But Delhi maintained their composure to fight their way back into the contest. Led by former Junior India player Sunil Kumar and their centre Vishal Kumar Gupta, Delhi got their shots going from the inside and outside. Sunil scored 38 points in the game and Vishal put in 29 points to give Delhi the edge. Both teams broke the 100-point barrier, with Delhi scoring a tournament-high 110 points to clinch the victory.
Day 6 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.
