Arise Steel 42nd Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship: Mixed day for Kerala and Karnataka girls teams; Tamil Nadu girls remain undefeated

West Bengal player (in yellow) finishing at the basket against Punjab (in white)

Puducherry, 4^th February 2016: The league stages of the Arise Steel 42^nd Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship entered its third day here in Puducherry. The early morning session of Day 3 was filled with level 1 girls’ games. Defending champs Kerala girls recovered from their stunning loss yesterday to defeat Haryana today 63-45. Krisha Priya once again led the Kerala side in scoring with 22 points. Karnataka girls suffered a loss today at the hands of the Tamil Nadu team, who are undefeated so far. Pavithra Sree put up another strong performance for Tamil Nadu with 21 points. Last year’s runners up Chhattisgarh girls continued their good run in the tournament so far with a 69-38 victory over Uttar Pradesh. Chhattisgarh’s Elijabet Ekka maintained her consistency with a game-high 22 points. Madhya Pradesh girls pulled off a 10-point win over Maharashtra with the final score at 51-41. Later in the morning, in the level 2 girls’ game, Himachal Pradesh picked up their second victory of the tournament with a 43-31 victory against Gujarat, led by Ananya Sanoria’s 17 points.

In the boys’ games, defending champions Madhya Pradesh maintained their perfect record with a convincing 94-31 win against Odisha. Pankaj Singh top scored for the MP team with 23 points. The Haryana boys got the better of Maharashtra today with a 63-49 victory. The Rajasthan boys team tasted their first defeat of the tournament at the hands of last year’s runners up Chhattisgarh, who took the game 72-51. Tamil Nadu boys continued to impress with a big 43-12 win over the Goa team. In the other boys’ games, Uttar Pradesh managed to edge past Andhra Pradesh in a high scoring contest that ended at 81-71 in favour of UP.

Tamil Nadu player (in blue) drives against Kerala defenders (in white).

Later in the day, the Kerala boys used a balanced team scoring effort to achieve a 54-35 win against Gujarat. The Delhi and Telangana boys were later involved in a exciting overtime game in which Telangana outscored Delhi during the extra period to clinch a 74-68 victory. Telangana’s Himanshu put up 29 points in the win for his team. The Telangana girls also picked up a victory today against neighbours Andhra Pradesh, albeit in a one-sided game that ended 50-24 in favour of Telangana. Tamil Nadu girls continued their fine run in the tournament, defeating defending champions Kerala girls today afternoon in surprisingly dominant fashion 43-25.

Punjab girls also dominated in their game against Goa that ended as a blowout with the final score at 40-11. Punjab boys faced tougher competition against West Bengal and ended up losing the game by 5 points. Sumit Shaw and Rohit Shaw who scored 15 points apiece led the West Bengal side in the victory. Karnataka boys pulled off a 46-43 victory edging past Himachal Pradesh. The Karnataka girls team also bounced back from their morning loss to Tamil Nadu, defeating West Bengal 36-22.

Punjab player (in white) attempts a layup against Goa (in blue).

Results from Day 3 (4-2-16)

Girls:

Level 1:

Group A:

1. Tamil Nadu (S. Pavithra Sree 21, G. Hari Vardini 20) bt Karnataka (Anjali Venkat 9) 59-36 (18-10, 8-9, 18-10, 15-17)

2. Kerala (Krishna Priya SS 22, Haleema Jan 17) bt Haryana (Varsha 11) 63-45 (10-14, 13-5, 19-10, 21-16)

3. Tamil Nadu (G. Harivardini 10) bt Kerala (Manniya 6, Haleema 6) 43-25 (16-8, 5-3, 13-6, 9-8)

4. Karnataka (Anjali Venkat 9, Janani N. 8) bt West Bengal (Asmina Khatin 8, Aishani Das 6) 36-22 (15-6, 2-2, 7-9, 12-5)

Group B:

1. Madhya Pradesh (Rajvi Desai 14, Asmat Kaur 11) bt Maharashtra (Shruti Bhosale 21) 51-41 (8-9, 6-12, 18-8, 19-12)

2. Chhattisgarh (Elijabet Ekka 22, Sanskriti Singh 14) bt Uttar Pradesh (Tripti Singh 8) 69-38 (17-9, 24-7, 13-14, 15-8)

Level 2:

Group D:

1. Himachal Pradesh (Ananya Sanoria 17, Ramandeep 10) bt Gujarat (Khushubu 11) 43-31 (13-4, 9-10, 7-10, 20-7)

Group E:

1. Punjab (Sukhmandeep 16, Subpreet Kaur 9) bt Goa (Katherine 5) 40-11 (15-4, 8-0, 17-1, 0-6)

Group F:

1. Telangana (Lasya Sree 20, Y. Swathi 13) bt Andhra Pradesh (G. Sandhya 9) 50-24 (11-3, 8-5, 12-6, 19-10)

Boys:

Level 1:

Group A:

1. Madhya Pradesh (Pankaj Singh 23, Jeet Kharwar 17, Manish Prasad 11) bt Odisha (Brahmananda B. 8) 94-31 (14-9, 22-8, 29-9, 29-5)

2. Haryana (Hardeep 15, Gaurav Sheoran 11) bt Maharashtra (Raza Shaikh 16, Vishal Kumar Satyadeo 12) 63-49 (15-15, 11-8, 20-18, 17-14)

Group B:

1. Uttar Pradesh (Aniket Singh 39, A. Kumar Singh 18) bt Andhra Pradesh (A. Sai Pawan Kumar 24, P. Venkata Raju 21) 81-71 (15-13, 17-22, 24-15, 25-21)

2. Chhattisgarh (Rishab 24, Sandeep 14) bt Rajasthan (Jaiveer 14, Ankit 11, Mohammad Aasif 10) 72-51 (18-16, 10-12, 25-15, 19-8)

Level 2:

Group C:

1. Karnataka (A. Sahoo 12, Shashidhar B. 11) bt Himachal Pradesh (V. Verma 13) 46-43 (8-12, 11-11, 13-3, 14-17)

Group D:

1. Kerala (Jerom Prince 17, Hari Govind 10, Yajurdas 9) bt Gujarat (Rushal R. 13) 54-35 (17-10, 20-12, 6-9, 11-4)

Group E:

1. Tamil Nadu (Salmal 18, Velmurugan 6) bt Goa (Daniel Godinho 4) 43-12 (9-4, 14-3, 1-5, 19-0)

2. West Bengal (Sumit Shaw 15, Rohit Kumar Shaw 15) bt Punjab (Eknoor Singh 14, Rajbeer Singh 10) 46-41 (12-12, 7-6, 13-14, 14-9)

Group F:

1. Bihar (Md. Danish 12, Dharmendra K. 12) bt Tripura (Aftab Khan 2, Vibhu Singh 2) 77-4 (24-4, 26-0, 14-0, 12-0)

2. Telangana (Himanshu 29, Ashish 11) bt Delhi (Shoaib Khan 21, Yaswanth K. 19) 74-68 (14-11, 13-11, 18-17, 17-23, Extra time 12-6)

About the 42^nd Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship

The 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 last year, while the Madhya Pradesh boys and the Tamil Nadu girls finished runners-up respectively.