Junior National Basketball Championship: Tamil Nadu girls’ and boys’ teams register emphatic victories

Tamil Nadu’s Baladhaneshwar (in white) lays it up en route to his team’s victory

On the morning of Day 2 of the 66th Junior National Basketball Championship at Ludhiana, Punjab, the Uttar Pradesh girls continued their good form with their second victory of the tournament against Maharashtra. Vaishnavi top scored for the UP team with 22 points. The Haryana girls bounced back from their Day 1 loss with a victory against West Bengal in a high-scoring contest that ended 91-76. Bharti put up 33 points for Haryana, while Paulami put up 38 points for West Bengal in a losing effort.

The Tamil Nadu girls had their first game of the tournament today morning against Himachal Pradesh. Tamil Nadu made easy work of their opponent and registered a 63-29 victory on the basis of a balanced team scoring effort.

In the post-noon session, Tamil Nadu boys broke no sweat against the Andhra Pradesh team. In their second game of the tournament, the team scored at will with easy transition buckets. Led by R. Hari Ram’s 17 points, Tamil Nadu picked up a blowout 79-31 victory. Earlier, the Maharashtra and Karnataka boys were engaged in a hard-fought contest. While Karnataka built an early 15-point lead, Maharashtra clawed their way back into the game. Maharashtra outscored their opponent by double digits in the third quarter and maintained their composure in the fourth to pull off a 86-83 victory.

In the afternoon level 1 girls’ game, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh battled in a clash of styles. Delhi relied mostly on their post players, with a bulk of the scoring load being undertaken by their 6 foot 7 inch centre Pallavi Kumari. But the Delhi defense could not shut down Madhya Pradesh’s star player Sakshi Pandey who displayed her offensive range from all over the court. With strong drives to the basket and timely outside jumpers, she led her team to a 72-64 victory and ended the game with 37 points.

Among the dignitaries present today for the tournament in Ludhiana were Vice-President of the Punjab Basketball Association Shri JP Singh, Satbir Singh Atwal, Addl. DCP and President of the Punjab Athletic Association, Shri Pirthipal Singh, DSP (Crime), Shri Sukhpal Singh Brar, SP, Arjuna Awardee (Volleyball), Shri GS Sandhu, DSP and international player, Shri Pawan Garg, Member, Punjab Basketball Association, Shri Gurvinderjit Singh, SP and Member of Punjab Basketball Association and Prof. Devender Chahal.

Results from Day 2 up to 5:30 pm

Girls:

Level 1:

Group A:

Madhya Pradesh (Sakshi 37, Shivani 18, Shivangi 10) bt Delhi (Pallavi Kumari 24, Shubham Ohlan 10, Divya 10) 72-64 (18-15, 21-16, 14-19, 19-14)

Group B:

Uttar Pradesh (Vaishnavi 22, Shreyasi 12) bt Maharashtra (Shreya S. 12, Carina 10) 59-41 (17-7, 15-14, 16-7, 11-13)

Haryana (Bharti 33, Namrata 26) bt West Bengal (Paulami 38, Pratyusha 21) 91-76 (23-16, 18-25, 25-18, 25-17)

Level 2:

Group C:

Tamil Nadu (K. Prithi 14, S. Shreyanka 8) bt Himachal Pradesh (Arushi Sharma 9) 63-29 (17-14, 19-4, 11-7, 16-4)

Group D:

Rajasthan (Kamlesh 19, Pratibha 11) bt Jammu and Kashmir (Pearl 6) 55-15 (17-2, 19-6, 8-5, 11-2)

Group E:

Odisha (Urbasi 16, Jayashree 12) bt Puducherry (Uma 6, Susanya 6) 53-23 (13-4, 16-3, 4-10, 0-6)

Chandigarh (Amrit 6, Tanu 5, Aman 4) bt Uttarakhand (Ashmita 3) 24-3 (8-0, 12-1, 4-0, 0-2)

Group F:

Bihar (Khushboo 12) bt Tripura (Sonali 7) 22-12 (2-3, 8-0, 2-6, 10-3)

Andhra Pradesh (Haffijunnisha 17) bt Telangana (P. Akshitha 4) 43-4 (17-1, 10-0, 9-0, 7-3)

Boys:

Level 1:

Group A:

Maharashtra (Sayyed 19, Ashraf 18) bt Karnataka (Kartikh 31, Mufeez 18) 86-83 (11-26, 19-18, 34-23, 22-16)

Group B:

Tamil Nadu (R. Hari Ram 17, A. Daniel Richards 15) bt Andhra Pradesh (V. Naveen Sagar 9, B. Neeraj Kumar 8) 79-31 (16-6, 19-11, 29-9, 15-5)

Level 2:

Group C:

Himachal Pradesh (Keshav Sood 16, Arvind Rana 14) bt Jammu and Kashmir (Amanjot Singh 12) 60-37 (20-14, 13-8, 16-11, 11-4)

Group E:

West Bengal (Arka Saha 19, Vinod 12) bt Goa (Roy Pereira 14) 58-28 (21-16, 20-2, 7-8, 10-2)

Group F:

Bihar (Nitesh Kumar 14, Sonu Kumar 9) bt Uttarakhand (Vaibhav Gupta 8, Mayank Verma 6) 46-37 (15-14, 10-14, 13-3, 8-6)