Arise Steel 42nd Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship: Chhattisgarh girls capture gold; Madhya Pradesh boys retain crown

Madhya Pradesh team with the gold medals and winning trophy.

Puducherry, 8^th February 2016: On the eighth and final day of the Arise Steel 42^nd Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship, the two best teams from the girls and boys categories were left to compete for the coveted gold medal. The first final was between powerhouse Chhattisgarh girls and the Tamil Nadu girls team, both of whom are yet to be defeated in this tournament.

Chhattisgarh started the game with intent against Tamil Nadu, who looked sluggish in the first quarter. With decisive drives to the basket and open shots coming out of good ball movement, the Chhattisgarh girls built a 12-point lead with the score at 21-8 at the end of the first quarter. But Tamil Nadu was not going down without a fight, as they began to crawl their way back into the contest. Tamil Nadu centre Pavithra Sree led the charge yet again for her team as she poured in 16 points to go with a massive 19 rebounds. However, there was little contribution from her teammates as the only other double-digit scorer was M. Deepa with 10 points. The first quarter hurt Tamil Nadu for the rest of the game, as Chhattisgarh managed to score just about enough to keep Tamil Nadu at bay. Chhattisgarh’s Elijabet Ekka, who is a possible MVP candidate, put in a game-high 24 points. Chhattisgarh also got contributions from Shweta and Neha who scored 13 and 10 points respectively. In the end, Tamil Nadu were unable to bridge the gap and Chhattisgarh won the game by 6 points 54-48. They went one better than last year to clinch the gold medal this time around.

Chhattisgarh girls team with the gold medal and winners trophy.

The Chhattisgarh boys also made their way to the final of the tournament where they faced defending champions Madhya Pradesh boys today evening. Both teams went into the contest evenly matched with no clear favourite. The match lived up to its billing as it took an extra five minutes of play to decide the result. The first half belong to the Chhattisgarh boys as they outplayed the defending champions while building a double-digit lead. Madhya Pradesh managed to put up only 20 points in the first half and entered the second half down by 11 points. But MP switched gears in the second half as they fought their way back, cutting down the deficit one possession at a time. Chhattisgarh found it difficult to contain MP duo of Jeet Kharwar and Brijesh Tiwari as they put in 21 points and 19 rebounds respectively. Each of them had double-digit rebounds as well, with Jeet pulling down 16 rebounds, helping his team outrebounded Chhattisgarh 53 to 38. As MP pulled back into the contest, Chhattisgarh fought to stay in the lead. Down two points with less than 30 seconds to go, Chhattisgarh equalised with just 10 seconds left on the clock. MP was unable to convert on the final possession of regular time and the game went into an extra five minutes. The MP boys held their composure in the extra time period and outscored Chhattisgarh by 5 points to close out the game at 64-59 and clinch gold for the second straight year.

The winning teams were awarded a cash prize of INR 50,000 each, while the runners up were awarded INR 30,000 each. The third placed teams received a cash prize of INR 20,000 each.

Earlier in the day, the fight for the bronze medal took place in the girls’ and boys’ categories. In the girls 3^rd place match, the Maharashtra girls comfortably defeated Madhya Pradesh 63-36 to capture the bronze medal. Maharashtra was led by Suzanne’s 14 points, along with 12 points from Siya Suresh off the bench.

In the boys’ category, Rajasthan clinched 3^rd place defeating Uttar Pradesh in a close game 71-66. Despite a few late mistakes, Rajasthan held on to their slim lead to close out the game and take home the bronze medal. Rajveer’s 21 points were crucial for Rajasthan. Uttar Pradesh’s Priyanshu put up a game-high 25 points in a losing effort.

Results from Day 7

FINALS:

Girls: Chhattisgarh (Elijabet Ekka 24, Shweta S. 13, Neha K. 10) bt Tamil Nadu (Pavithra Sree 16, M. Deepa 10, G. Harivardini 9) 54-48 (21-8, 8-9, 9-14, 16-17)

Boys: Madhya Pradesh (Jeet Kharwar 21, Brijesh Tiwari 19, Pankaj Singh 8) bt Chhattisgarh (Sajjad Ali 13, Rishab Jaiswal 12, Harsh Singh 12) 64-59 (12-15, 8-16, 15-8, 18-14, Extra time 11-6)

3^rd and 4^th place matches:

Girls:

Maharashtra (Suzanne 14, Siya Suresh 12) bt Madhya Pradesh (Rajvi Desai 12, Shweta 12) 63-36 (21-13, 17-6, 12-11, 13-6)

Boys:

Rajasthan (Rajveer S. 21, Devendra T. 10) bt Uttar Pradesh (Priyanshu 25, Aniket 16) 71-66 (22-18, 12-11, 19-16, 18-11)

Classification for 5^th and 6^th places:

Girls:

Karnataka (Pavithra 14) bt Uttar Pradesh (Anushka 8) 46-39 (14-11, 11-12, 10-11, 11-5)

Boys:

Andhra Pradesh (Ghouse Mohiddin 24, Sai Pavan Kumar 24) bt Maharashtra (Sayeed Mudassir 21, Pritish Jitesh 12) 90-77 (28-16, 21-21, 19-16, 22-24)

Final Standings

Girls:

1. Chhattisgarh

2. Tamil Nadu

3. Maharashtra

4. Madhya Pradesh

5. Karnataka

6. Uttar Pradesh

7. Kerala

8. Haryana

9. Rajasthan

10. Telangana

Boys:

1. Madhya Pradesh

2. Chhattisgarh

3. Rajasthan

4. Uttar Pradesh

5. Andhra Pradesh

6. Maharashtra

7. Haryana

8. Odisha

9. Kerala

10. Karnataka

About the Arise Steel 42^nd Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship

The Arise Steel 42^nd Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship is being organised in Puducherry from the 2^nd to the 8^th of February 2016 at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex. There are two indoor courts inside the complex, named Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium, along with one outdoor court in the complex dedicated to the tournament. This year’s event is being organised by the Puducherry Basketball Association under the aegis of the Basketball Federation of India. The Sub-Junior Nationals is an annual national tournament for U-14 boys’ and girls’ teams from states across India. This year’s tournament is witnessing the participation of 23 boys’ teams and 21 girls’ teams. Arise Steel is the main sponsor for the tournament.

The 41^st Sub-Junior Nationals were conducted in Nashik, Maharashtra, where the Kerala girls and the Madhya Pradesh boys emerged victorious clinching the gold medals. Chhattisgarh girls and boys were the second placed teams. The 2013 version tournament was conducted in Patna, Bihar. The Chhattisgarh teams won both the boys and the girls category  year, while the Madhya Pradesh boys and the Tamil Nadu girls finished runners-up respectively.