Youth National Basketball Championships: Girls final between Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh

A Tamil Nadu player attempts a shot

After incessant rains in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, the Day 6 matches at the 32nd Youth National Basketball Championship were shifted to a venue in Anand district. The new venue was the Multipurpose Sports Complex at Sardar Patel University in Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand district, featuring an indoor court and two outdoor courts.

The quarterfinal matches for the girls began with the Chhattisgarh girls displaying their typical team style of play against Madhya Pradesh, with tight defense and several transition buckets. Led by Gulabsha Ali’s 29 points, Chhattisgarh raced to a big lead in the first half, which was enough to carry them through to a 70-51 victory and advancing to the semi-finals, where they would face Maharashtra.

The other girl’s quarterfinal between Tamil Nadu and Kerala began with Tamil Nadu racing to a 22-10 lead in the first quarter. Kerala fought hard to make a comeback in the next three quarters, but Tamil Nadu matched Kerala’s scoring to hold on for a 58-47 victory. They booked a semi-final berth where they would face Punjab.

In the boy’s games, the quarterfinals saw two enthralling encounters. It started off with Uttar Pradesh and Haryana battling for a semi-final spot. After conceding a 25-8 lead to Haryana, Uttar Pradesh stormed back into the game, outscoring Haryana in the remaining quarters. With nothing separating the teams in regular time, the match was decided in the extra time period with Haryana edging past Uttar Pradesh 14 to 10. Ankit and Rinku led the way for their teams with 22 and 20 points respectively.

The Delhi boys also beat Kerala in a thriller. After a good start, Kerala boys kept the momentum going in the middle periods. But Delhi made a great comeback, dominating the last quarter 29 to 18. With both teams exchanging buckets in the final minutes and with the 1-point lead being exchanged between the teams, the Delhi boys pulled off the last game-winning shot and held on to register a 80-79 lead.

Results from evening of Day 6

Girls:

Quarterfinals:

Chhattisgarh (Gulabsha Ali 29, Jyoti 12) bt Madhya Pradesh (Divyani Gangwal 26, Shivani B 14) 70-51 (11-6, 25-16, 15-8, 19-21)

Tamil Nadu (Ishwarya Janardhan 16, Nishanti M. 14) bt Kerala (Shreekala 18, Akhila 14) 58-47 (22-10, 13-16, 10-10, 12-11)

Semifinals:

Chhattisgarh (Gulabsha Ali 24, MahimaBhardwaj 15) btMaharashtra (Neha 17) 71-40 (19-14, 22-9, 14-10, 16-7)

Tamil Nadu (Avanti 13, Ria Sharon 12) btPunjab (Sakshi 18, RajandeepKaur 8) 52-39 (8-5, 7-11, 15-6, 22-17)

Loser’s knockout semi-final:

Gujarat (Niyati 6, RiaDubey 5) btJammu and Kashmir (Dikshita R. 3) 19-4 (13-3, 2-1, 2-0, 2-0)

Loser’s knockout final girls:

Himachal Pradesh (Musakan 19, Vanshika 15) bt Gujarat (Tavleen 12) 45-26 (6-11, 8-2, 19-9, 12-4)

Boys:

Quarterfinals:

Delhi (Manik 23, Hansraj 17) btKerala (Shiras 30, Joshua 28) 80-79 (12-22, 20-16, 19-23, 29-18)

Haryana (Ankit 22, Rinku 20) btUttar Pradesh (Dheeraj 31, Bhagyansh 13) 83-79 (25-8, 9-14, 12-19, 23-28, Extra time 14-10)

Tamil Nadu (P. Baladhaneshwar 22, G.K. Manikandan 19) btMaharashtra (Sameer Qureshi 15, Faisan 11) 62-44

Punjab (Swapnil 18, Abhi K. 13, Sahil 11) btChhattisgarh (Gajendra 6, Vinod 6, Anurag 6) 51-26 (16-4, 6-8, 17-9, 12-5)

Loser’s knockout semi-final:

West Bengal (Himanshu 20, Saddam 17) btHimachal Pradesh (Abhishek 16, Jatin 8, Chetan 6) 48-38 (2-7, 9-8, 19-16, 18-7)

Loser’s knockout final:

West Bengal (Saddam 29, Himanshu 8) btGoa (Shaun 14) 51-23 (13-10, 19-8, 11-2, 8-3)