Chhattisgarh girls trump Kerala; Rajasthan boys stun defending champs Tamil Nadu on Day 2 of the 68th Junior National Basketball Championship

Jun 05, 2017

Noida, 5^th June 2017: The inauguration ceremony of the 68^th Junior National Basketball Championship was held today morning on Day 2, here at Shiv Nadar University. The chief guest for the occasion was none other than the local MP from Gautam Budh District, Uttar Pradesh, Dr. Mahesh Sharma who is also the Union Minister of State for Culture and Tourism.

Also present were Mr Chander Mukhi Sharma, Secretary General, BFI; Mr Rajiv Swarup, President of Shiv Nadar University, Dr Mrs Seema Sharma, President, UP Basketball Association (UPBA); Mr Bhupendra Shahi, Hon. Secretary, UPBA and Mr Alok Sharma, Additional Director General, Sashastra Seema Bal and patron of the UPBA.

All the dignitaries noted the wide participation of teams from across the country. They also exhorted the players to exploit the wonderful indoor facilities at Shiv Nadar University to its fullest. The Championship has been dedicated to late Prof. Hari Krishna Awasthi, the former Vice Chancellor of Lucknow University, as 2017 is his centennial birth anniversary. His daughter Prof Abha Awasthi was present on the occasion.

Kerala teams have mixed outings

Joshua of Kerala draws a foul against Delhi. Image credits: Basketball Federation of India

Heavyweights Kerala and Chhattisgarh girls faced off for the first time this tournament today afternoon. The first quarter belonged to Chhattisgarh, who built a double-digit lead early in the game. Led by Gulabsha Ali (51 points), Chhattisgarh maintained a healthy lead till halftime. However, in the second half, Kerala mounted a comeback that brought them within single digits in the final minutes. But Chhattisgarh staved off the Kerala run to clinch a thrilling 92-86 win.

The Kerala boys, runners up at the last junior nationals, faced the Delhi team who are usually considered the dark horse at junior tournaments. This turned out to be another nail biting contest, as both teams exchanged blows till the end. Kerala jumped to a 28-10 lead in the first quarter led by the play of Amal Reghu (40 points) and Joshua (21 points). The Kerala team also had a distinct size advantage giving them multiple second chance opportunities. After the first quarter, however, Delhi stabilised and clawed back into the game. The Delhi guardswere fearless on their drives to the rim, despite Kerala’s big presence on the inside.Both teams went back and forth until the final minutes, until Kerala edged forward and pulled away thanks to clutch buckets by Amal and a rebound follow by forward Sejin Mathew, who is certainly an exciting prospect. Kerala registered their second straight win 93 to 83.

Defending champs TN boys stunned by Rajasthan

The defending champions Tamil Nadu boys were on a high after their emphatic opening win yesterday. But their were dealt a reality check today afternoon in their game against an unassuming Rajasthan side. With Tamil Nadu lacking the services of their star player P. Baladhaneshwar, who recently made it to the India team as well, there was not much to separate the two sides. Sumit (24 points) and Rajeev (21 points) did the bulk of scoring for Rajasthan, while Tamil Nadu’s Shanmugam put up 30 points. The game went down to the wire and clutch freethrows by Rajeev gave Rajasthan the 2-point edge to clinch the victory.

UP teams win

Uttar Pradesh forward Nidhi draws the foul against Amrit of Chandigarh. Image credits: Basketball Federation of India

The Uttar Pradesh girls team pleased the home crowd today morning with a 73-42 win in their opening game against Chandigarh. A strong first half performance ensured a smooth road to the finish line for the UP girls who were led by Vaishnavi’s 26 points. Amrit had 19 points for Chandigarh in the loss.

Later in the evening, the UP boys team too pulled away from West Bengal after a close first half, to register their second straight win.

Maharashtra girls picked up an easy win today against Haryana 79 to 28, improving their record to 2-0. Haryana, on the other hand, slipped to 0-2 and remained at the bottom of their group.

Karnataka boys remain unbeaten

The Karnataka boys have been impressive in the tournament so far, with another imposing victory today morning. They stormed out of the gates against an undermatched Tripura side, taking the first quarter 35 to 3. This set the tone for the rest of the game as Karnataka cruised to an 83-18 win. The Gujarat boys also registered an emphatic victory against Jharkhand beating them 67-12. Four Gujarat players scored in double digits in the blowout win.

In the other boys’ games this morning, Madhya Pradesh beat Jammu and Kashmir 49 to 38, while Uttarakhand topped Bihar 59-40.

Neighbours AP and Telangana girls triumph

In lower Level 2 action from yesterday evening, the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana girls triumphed against Assam and Bihar respectively. Both the Odisha girls’ and boys’ teams also registered wins late last evening and the Uttarkhand girls beat Tripura 28-15.

Results from 5^th June 2017 till 6 pm

Women:

Level 1

Group A

Chhattisgarh (Gulabsha Ali 51, Megha 18) bt Kerala (Anisha 27, Sreekala 20, Jayalakshmi 19) 92-86 (26-14, 27-22, 17-16, 22-34)
Karnataka (S Ramesh 14, Rajvi 12) bt Gujarat (Jahnavi Sreeram 5) 42-20 (13-13, 12-4, 7-2, 10-1)

Group B

Maharashtra (SH Dandekar 19, KS Dongre 10, RJ Pawar 10, SV Sherigar 10) bt Haryana (ManjeetNehra 11, Meeru 6) 79-28 (27-14, 23-5, 11-3, 18-6)

Level 2

Group D

Uttar Pradesh (Vaishnavi 26, Kavya 12, Shreyasi 11) bt Chandigarh (Amrit 19, Nisha 10) 73-42 (24-15, 20-9, 8-4, 21-14)

Group E

West Bengal (Megha Singh 14, Neha Singh 13) bt Bihar (NishaKumari 8, Shreyasi C. 6) 63-20 (19-2, 15-5, 14-6, 15-7)

Group F

Andhra Pradesh (P. Susmita 16, N. Saroja 7) bt Tripura (Anjali 7, Kirti 5, Shivani 3) 52-3 (22-0, 14-3, 10-0, 6-0)

Men: