League Stages of 33rd Youth National Championship Completed

Hassan, Karnataka, 22^nd November, 2016: The 33rd Youth National Championship 2016 completed the league stages today, with the knockouts commencing from tomorrow.

Tamil Nadu and Kerala girls top respective groups

Joint defending champions Tamil Nadu girls proved too hot to handle for Madhya Pradesh as well as home team Karnataka. After achieving an 80-43 blowout victory over Madhya Pradesh in the morning, Tamil Nadu silenced the home crowd by dominating against the Karnataka girls as well winning by a 40-point margin (74-34). After an unbeaten run in the league stages in Group A, Tamil Nadu girls have booked a place in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Despite the loss, Karnataka girls still managed to advance to the quarters where they will face the Uttar Pradesh girls team. UP girls just about made it to the knockout stages after winning a nail-biter against Maharashtra by 1 point (59-58).

Kerala girls have also topped their group (Group B) and booked a quarterfinal berth after winning their game today against joint defending champions Chhattisgarh girls 79 to 58. Punjab girls won their match against West Bengal today 39 to 33. But this was not enough to take them directly to the quarters. They will have to face the Rajasthan girls in the pre-quarterfinals.

UP boys bt Delhi by 1 point

The UP boys also ended up winning a thriller against joint defending champions Delhi (81-80). Both teams, however, have advanced to the quarterfinals. Kerala boys have sealed a place in the quarterfinals with their fourth win of the tournament today morning against Chhattisgarh (66-54). Neighbours Haryana and Punjab also won their level 1 games today morning against Gujarat and Maharashtra respectively. Punjab picked up another victory later in the day against Chandigarh in a tight contest that ended 78-71, thereby qualifying for the quarterfinals.

Karnataka boys through to prequarterfinals

In big news for the home team, Karnataka boys sealed a place in the pre-quarterfinals with a 74-62 victory against Andhra Pradesh. Karnataka centre Pratyanshu Tomar had a game-high 23 points. Both the Rajasthan girls’ and boys’ teams also advanced to the pre-quarterfinals with wins against the Himachal Pradesh girls and the West Bengal boys. Gujarat girls rounded off the pre-quarterfinalists thus far edging past West Bengal 57 to 56. Gujarat will face the Maharashtra girls in their pre-quarterfinal tomorrow morning.

Tamil Nadu boys bt Haryana in thriller

In a crucial game today afternoon, Tamil Nadu boys defeated Haryana in the highest scoring game of the tournament thus far Despite a mammoth 51-point effort from Pankaj Ganghas, Tamil Nadu held on to clinch a 98-96 win. Aravind Kumar of Tamil Nadu had a stellar game top scoring for his side with 40 points. Tamil Nadu will now face the Delhi boys in the quarterfinals tomorrow morning, while Haryana will have to face home team Karnataka in the pre-quarterfinal. The winner of that game will qualify to the quarterfinals where they will face the Punjab boys.

Day 4 up to 8 pm at the 33rd Youth National Championship

Girls:

Level 1:

Group A:

1. Tamil Nadu (K. Priya 19, Avanti Vardhan 14, S. Pushpa 9) bt Madhya Pradesh (Divyani Gangwal 11, Ruchi Patel 7) 80-43(19-3, 27-13, 12-13, 22-14)

2. Punjab (Sakshi Sharma 18, Prabhjot Kaur 14) bt West Bengal (Taraha Naz 15) 39-33 (10-6, 4-11, 8-4, 17-12)

3. Tamil Nadu (Dharshini 10, Avanti Vardhan 9, S. Pushpa 8, Parthibapriya 8) bt Karnataka (Harshitha KB 9, Anagha 6) 74-34 (20-9, 27-10, 17-9, 10-6)

Group B:

1. Uttar Pradesh (Vaishnavi Yadav 30, Shivani Gupta 11) bt Maharashtra (Shreya 20, Anshika 13, Sakshi Kotian 11) 59-58(17-14, 17-10, 15-22, 10-12)

2. Kerala (Jayalakshmi 24, Festi P Jose 14, Aparna 10) bt Chhattisgarh (Elizabet Ekka 19, Neha Karva 14, Shweta Sen 13) 79-58 (22-11, 22-22, 22-12, 13-13)

Level 2 to Level 1 qualifiers:

1. Gujarat (Anoushka Karshalia 14, Jahnavi Sreeram 14, Ria Dubey 12) bt Odisha (Suvanki Sahoo 20, Lipramayee Sathpathy 18, Saraswati Behera 12) 57-56 (18-10, 6-22, 15-6, 18-18)

2. Rajasthan (Yakshika Singhal 17, Veena Seshma 15, Aparna Saini 12) bt Himachal Pradesh (Pallavi 9) 62-19 (18-6, 14-2, 22-6, 8-5)

Final Qualifying Match (Level 2 to Level 1)

Both these teams have qualified to the prequarterfinals already. This match is played so that the winning team gets to decide their prequarterfinal opponent.

1. Rajasthan (Aparna Saini 14, Nandita 8) bt Gujarat (Tanisha Shah 11) 43-25 (10-6, 13-3, 8-6, 12-10)

Boys:

Level 1:

Group A:

1. Haryana (Anil 14, Pankaj Ganghas 12, Anup 10) bt Gujarat (Aman Bothan 8, Gurupurab Singh 8) 51-30 (29-14, 7-4, 5-4, 10-9)

2. Kerala (Amal Reghu 15, Sejin Mathew 14, Shanazil 12) bt Chhattisgarh (Binod Rajak 14, Salim Ali 13, Govind 11) 66-54(21-13, 9-14, 15-17, 21-10)

3. Tamil Nadu (M. Aravind Kumar 40, K. Surya 13) bt Haryana (Pankaj Ganghas 51, Anup 12) 98-96 (30-21, 21-20, 24-27, 23-28)

Group B:

1. Punjab (Jagshaanbir Singh 16, Princepal Singh 12, Vivek Chouhan 12) bt Maharashtra (Shaikh Zaid 19, Suraj Kumar 17)86-62 (24-10, 19-17, 12-22, 31-13)

2. Uttar Pradesh (P. Mishra 22, Bhagyansh Gulati 18, Priyanshu 17) bt Delhi (Adiya Singh 31, Nitish Beniwal 18, Abhishek Sharma 13) 81-80 (15-14, 14-19, 27-16, 25-31)

3. Punjab (Princepal Singh 23, Vivek Chouhan 18) bt Chandigarh (Ajmer 23, Deepu Kumar 15) 78-71 (23-17, 14-19, 20-15, 21-20)

Rahul of Chandigarh fought valiantly against Punjab, but couldnt get the upset win at the 33rd Youth National Championship

Level 2 to Level 1 qualifiers:

1. Karnataka (Pratyanshu Tomar 23, Srujan BK 22, Akshay Prasad 13) bt Andhra Pradesh (VND Prasad 18, A. Sai Pavan Kumar 13, M. Manikanta 13) 74-62 (13-20, 25-11, 13-9, 23-22)

2. Rajasthan (Ashish Trivedi 26, Sumeet Kumar 23, Ataul Hussain 11) bt West Bengal (Pranay Mondal 19, Azaz Khan 13) 71-55 (17-14, 16-11, 16-15, 22-15)

Final Qualifying Match (Level 2 to Level 1)

Both these teams have qualified to the prequarterfinals already. This match is played so that the winning team gets to decide their prequarterfinal opponent.

1. Rajasthan (Ashish 28, Sumeet Kumar 14, Ataul Hussain 12) bt Karnataka (Pratyanshu Tomar 16, Srujan BK 11, Akshay Prasad 10) 66-59 (17-19, 22-10, 15-16, 12-14)

About the 33^rd Youth National Basketball Championship 2016

The 33^rd Youth National Basketball Championship for U16 boys and girls is being held in Hassan, Karnataka from the 19^th to the 26^th of November, 2016.

The matches are being conducted at three venues - the indoor and outdoor courts of the Hasanamba Stadium and the courts of the Malnad College of Engineering.

The championship is being organised by Karnataka State Basketball Association (KSBBA) under the aegis of Basketball Federation of India (BFI). The inauguration ceremony will be held on Saturday, 19^th November at 4:15 pm.

Championship Details

In total, 24 boys teams and 22 girls teams are participating in the eight day tournament.  As always, the teams have been divided into upper Level 1 and lower Level 2. Within each Level, the teams are further divided into Groups A & B (Level 1) and Groups C to F (for Level 2 teams).

This is a league cum knockout format, and as many as 122 matches will be played from early morning to late night. The top teams after the group stages will proceed to the knockout rounds. There is also a system of relegation/promotion whereby the bottom two Level 1 teams will get relegated to Level 2 for the next edition, replaced by the top two teams from Level 2.

Prior to the 2016 edition, 32 iterations of the Championship have been held so far. The 2015 edition was held in Bhavnagar & Anand in Gujarat. Due to incessant rains, the finals were washed out. As a result, Tamil Nadu and Delhi boys, and Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh girls were declared joint winners.

For media queries please contact

Mr Mohan Kumar (Karnataka State Basketball Association) - +91 9845479989

Mr Gopalakrishnan R (BFI Media team) - +91 8197235684