Punjab and Maharashtra girls advance to semis
West Bengal player (in white) tries to steal the ball against Madhya Pradesh. Right: Team Maharashtra
Bhavnagar, Gujarat, 18th September 2015: On the eve of the pre-quarter and quarterfinals, Level 1 teams faced off in their last leg of group games. In the girls’ games, Tamil Nadu made short work of the Punjab team, who were overwhelmed by Tamil Nadu’s play. The defending champs outscored Punjab 23 to 0 in the first quarter and it was cruise control from then on. Tamil Nadu managed to use a lot of their bench players for the rest of the game, which ended in a 45-16 victory for TN. The Chhattisgarh girls also comfortably beat Delhi 55-31. Gulabsha Ali yet again top scored for her team with 16 points. In the boys’ games, Delhi pulled off a close victory against Chhattisgarh 48-42, with Baljit and Manik contributing 15 points each for Delhi.
The loser’s knockout quarterfinals for the boys also took place yesterday evening with Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Goa advancing to the loser’s knockout semifinals with victories against Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Puducherry respectively. West Bengal boys are also in the loser’s knockout semifinals.
Day 5 started off with home team Gujarat facing Chandigarh to decide which team they would face in the pre-quarterfinals. Led by Amit’s 26 points, Chandigarh beat Gujarat by a 21-point margin 61-40. Chandigarh went on to face Maharashtra in the pre-quarterfinal later in the morning, where they lost a tightly fought game 67-62, despite Amit’s 40 points. Sameer Qureshi and Faisan top scored for the Maharashtra team with 24 and 22 points respectively. Gujarat will face the Chhattisgarh boys today evening in their pre-quarterfinal.
Two girls’ quarterfinals took place in the morning of Day 5. Punjab faced Karnataka, who won both their games yesterday. But Karnataka could not find that winning touch today against Punjab. After a slow start, the Punjab girls outplayed Karnataka in the next 3 quarters to advance to the semifinals. Rajandeep Kaur top scored for Punjab with 14 points and Lovepreet Kaur contributed 13 points included 3 of 3 from 3-point range.
The other quarterfinal between Maharashtra and Haryana was a tighter game with both teams having India campers in their lineup. The small ball game did not work for Haryana today as Maharashtra exploited their size advantage. Neha Vinod put in 24 points and Shruti Sherigar contributed 22 points to lead Maharashtra girls to a 61-52 victory and clinch a semifinal berth.
The pre-quarterfinal matches in the girls’ category saw Kerala advance to the quarterfinals with a 36-15 victory over Uttar Pradesh, led by Sreekala’s 14 points. The Madhya Pradesh girls also advanced to the quarterfinals with a dominant 47-19 victory over West Bengal.
Pre-Quarter and Quarterfinals scheduled for Day 5 evening
Pre-Quarterfinal:
Gujarat v. Chhattisgarh Boys
Quarterfinals:
Girls:
Tamil Nadu v. Kerala
Chattisgarh v. Madhya Pradesh
Boys:
Uttar Pradesh v. Haryana
Delhi v. Kerala
Results from Day 4 after 8:30 p.m.
Girls:
Level 1:
Group A:
Tamil Nadu (Mridhula N. 9, M. Nishanthi 9, Srishti Suren 6) bt Punjab (Aakarshan Sandhu 7) 45-16 (23-0, 13-5, 9-4, 0-7)
Group B:
Chhattisgarh (Gulabsha Ali 16, Manisha 8) bt Delhi (Sushantika 15, Shubham 10) 55-31 (13-6, 15-6, 16-14, 11-5)
Placement for Pre-Quarterfinals:
West Bengal (Paramita Ghosh 33, Neha 13) bt Uttar Pradesh (Harshita 15, Pratibha 10) 60-53 (12-15, 16-11, 21-12, 11-15)
Boys:
Level 1:
Group A:
Delhi (Baljeet 15, Manik 15, Aakash H. 10) bt Chhattisgarh (Vinod Rajak 17, Harish 12) 48-42 (17-8, 10-13, 10-6, 11-5)
Group B:
Haryana (Sawan 12, Dinku 11) bt Rajasthan (Yash Drohich 4) 50-8 (15-0, 12-2, 15-6, 8-0)
Loser’s Knockout Quarterfinals:
Himachal Pradesh (Ankush 12, Chetan 12) bt Jammu and Kashmir (Kushagra 10, Shivam 7) 57-33 (10-14, 16-3, 20-7, 11-9)
Andhra Pradesh (Lakshmana Veerababu 11, Naga Durgaprasad 8) bt Bihar (Alok Kumar 7, Raunak Kumar 6) 32-22 (6-7, 10-4, 11-6, 5-5)
Goa (Shaun 20, Mangesh 8) bt Puducherry (Gurumurthy 10, Satyavanan 8) 49-28 (13-2, 4-4, 8-13, 24-9)
Results from morning session of Day 5
Girls:
Quarterfinals:
Punjab (Rajandeep Kaur 14, Lovepreet Kaur 13, Sakshi 11) bt Karnataka (Sandhya C. 15, Harshitha 9) 49-36 (7-9, 14-7, 14-8, 14-12)
Maharashtra (Neha Vinod 24, Shruti Sherigar 22) bt Haryana (Meena 13, Namrata 11) 61-52 (15-13, 9-14, 18-13, 19-12)
Pre-Quarterfinals:
Madhya Pradesh (Shivani B. 10, Divyani G. 10, Shruti B. 8) bt West Bengal (Mala A. 6, Paramita Ghosh 3) 47-19 (13-4, 16-6, 8-4, 10-5)
Kerala (Sreekala R. 14, Akhila Mohan 7) bt Uttar Pradesh (Shivani Gupta 6) 36-15 (13-5, 4-6, 13-2, 6-2)
Placement matches (For ‘C’ and ‘D’ groups for next year)
Delhi (Sushantika 16, Shubham 15) bt Andhra Pradesh (S.K. Chandini 7, M. Hima 5) 46-16 (16-10, 17-6, 7-0, 6-0)
Boys:
Placement for Pre-Quarterfinals:
Chandigarh (Amit 26, Ajmer 10) bt Gujarat (Karan 11, Krishnapal 8, Satyajeet 6) 61-40 (26-11, 14-11, 16-13, 5-5)
Pre-Quarterfinals:
Maharashtra (Sameer Qureshi 24, Faisan 22) bt Chandigarh (Amit 40, Sachin 6, Ajmer 6) 67-62 (17-17, 12-14, 22-7, 16-24)
Placement matches (For ‘C’ and ‘D’ groups for next year)
Madhya Pradesh bt Rajasthan by way of forfeit
About 32nd Youth National Basketball Championship
The 32nd Youth National Basketball Championship is being conducted in Bhavnagar, Gujarat from 14th to 20th September 2015 by the Gujarat State Basketball Association in association with the Bhavnagar District Basketball Association and the Youngsters Basketball Club, Bhavnagar under the aegis of the Basketball Federation of India.
The tournament shall see the participation of 43 teams from different states, which includes and 22 teams in the boys’ category and 21 teams in the girls’ category, in the ‘16 and under’ age group. Last year’s Youth National Championship was held in Chandigarh. The winners of the 2014 version were Tamil Nadu, in both the boys’ and girls’ categories, while the first runners up position was secured by the boys’ and girls’ teams from Kerala. The third place winner in the boys’ category last year was the team from Haryana. In the girls’ category, the third place winner last year was Karnataka.
This year’s tournament is being held on two outdoor courts at Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. KARP Impex Group, involved in the business of diamond polishing, crafting and sale and based out of Surat, Gujarat, is the title sponsor for the event. Other sponsors include Sports Authority of Gujarat, Sheetal Group, Acrysil Limited, Madhu Silica, HVK, Rudra TMX, Mono TMT Bar, Leela Worldwide, Maruti Metal Industries, Priya Blue Industries Private Limited, Navyug Pharma Chemical Private Limited, NBM – Iron and Steel Trading Private Limited and Kiran Diamonds.