64th Junior Nationals, 2013, Day 5: Punjab and Delhi boys top their groups; local Odisha girls relegated to lower pool

Karnataka boys’ team in a pre-game huddle before their match against Madhya Pradesh. Copyright: Clint Furtado/BFI

If Wednesday saw a few close matches, Thursday seemed dedicated to one-sided affairs. The Chhattisgarh girls continue to march on in their quest to repeat last year’s Championship winning run.

They beat Delhi 91-49 in their last league match. Chhattisgarh girls, along with Kerala have won all their league matches and topped their respective groups (A & B).

Among the boys, Punjab added an exclamation mark to their dominance so far by beating Andhra Pradesh in their last league match by a margin of more than 40 points—this despite not playing international point guard Loveneet Singh, who was rested today.

With a 4-0 record, Punjab has topped Group B and will head into the quarterfinals with a lot of confidence. In Group A, Delhi has surprised many by winning all their league matches and topping their group.

Defending boys champion Chhattisgarh scraped into the quarterfinals by the skin of its teeth. Having won only one out of its first three matches, Chhattisgarh went into its final league match against Rajasthan desperate to win. They finally got their act together to take the game 110-86. The bottom placed Rajasthan will now be relegated to the lower pool next year.

Local teams suffer

Both the Odisha boys and girls teams lost their matches today. The girls’ team will be relegated to the lower pool next year after finishing at the bottom of their Group. They lost to Punjab 73-36.

Odisha boys lost to Haryana 93-72. Both Haryana and Odisha had already qualified for the pre-quarterfinals. The significance of this match is that the winner gets to pick its pre-quarterfinal opponent among the two fourth placed teams from the two upper groups. Odisha will now take on Maharashtra in the pre-quarterfinals tomorrow at 8:30 am.

Losers Knockout: Finalists Spotted

A separate series of matches is being held for all the lower pool teams that have already been eliminated from the main competition. This ensures that these teams get much needed match practice at the national level. Jharkhand and Bihar advanced to the loser knockout finals while in the girls section Andhra Pradesh and Assam will face off in the girls’ section.

Results of Matches played on 5th September 2013 (Thursday)Boys 1. Karnataka (Issac 23, Clinton 17, Sowkin 16, Jeethendar 14) bt Madhya Pradesh (Shubham 15, Ashiv 11, Mohit 10) 78-66 [QT Scores: 22-11, 25-21, 13-14, 18-20] 2. Chhattisgarh (Ravi Kumar 26, Shiv Kumar 21, Ankit Kumar 17, Tarendra 15, Sanjeev Kumar 15) bt Rajasthan (Devendra 36, Shubham 16, Abhimanyu 12, Devesh 9) 110-86 [QT Scores: 26-21, 31-17, 19-29, 34-19] 3. Punjab (Abhishek 13, Jaspreet 13, Gurwinder 13, Satnam 13, Khushmeet 12, Hemant 10) bt Andhra Pradesh (G.Rakesh Reddy 12, S.Sai Kumar 11, K. Akhil V.Reddy 8) 97-52 [QT Scores: 32-15, 13-12, 17-12, 35-13] 4. Delhi (Narendra 25, Pardeep Kumar 19, A.S. Sohal 14, Pankaj 14) bt Kerala (Jishnu 17, Arun 13, Sreerag 13, Akhil 11) 78-63 [QT Scores: 15-12, 15-20, 21-15, 27-16] Girls 1. Chhattisgarh (Poonam Chaturvedi 26, Sangeeta Kaur 25) bt Delhi (Monika 22, Jyoti 7) 91-49[QT Scores: 31-20, 28-10, 18-11, 14-8] 2. Punjab (Kulwinder 28, Nirmal 27, Jaspreet 7) bt Odisha (Rajashree 18, Shibani 6) 73-36[QT Scores: 25-8, 23-8, 10-12, 15-8] 3. Tamil Nadu (R. Niranjana 16, K. Devi Rajlakshmi 12, R. Sharmila 12, S. Shreyanka 10, P. Mathuravani 10) bt Haryana (Savita 12, Suman 10, Jyoti 8) 85-43 [QT Scores: 31-11, 15-12, 21-5, 18-15] 4. Maharashtra (Sruthi 22, Kritika 16, Shireen 11, Ishwari 10) bt Madhya Pradesh (Amishi 15, Monika 11, Monal 10) 65-50 [QT Scores: 12-21, 11-6, 26-8, 16-15] Results of seeding matches played between lower pool toppers to decide pre-quarterfinal opponents Boys 1. Haryana (Naveen 31, Rahul 21, Pardeep 17, Himanshu 15) bt Odisha (Firoj Barwa 22, Bharat Tamsoy 21, Amarjit Pandey 14) 93-72 [QT Scores: 15-22, 23-10, 29-19, 26-21] Girls 2. Rajasthan (Kamlesh Taragi 24, Nishi Sharma 19) bt Karnataka (Babay Bat HV 6, Supriya M.S. 4, Kavana C.R 4) 54-37 [QT Scores: 10-8, 12-10, 16-6, 16-13] Results of ‘Loser Knockouts’ Semi-Finals Boys 1. Jharkhand (Gurwinder Singh 25, Avirup Paika Ray 10, Roshan Habil Lugun 10) bt Chandigarh (Naveen 25, Maninder Pal Singh 6, Harkirat Singh 6) 73-54 (12-13, 21-12, 17-12, 23-17) 2. Bihar (Chanderan Kumar 21, Rohit Raj 17) bt Uttrakhand (Kamal 20, Amit 16) 57-50 (10-20, 9-8, 19-6, 19-16) Girls 1. Andhra Pradesh (M. Reddy 10, A. Rao 10, M. Sreetha Reddy 7) bt Gujarat (I. Bisht 24, N. Patel 8) 48-37 [QT Scores: 17-12, 6-5, 4-8, 21-12] 2. Assam (Kiran 13, Vandana 8) bt Himachal Pradesh (Y. Negi 9, M Shikhawat 8, A Rathour 8)34-32 [QT Scores: 10-7, 7-7, 9-7, 8-11]

Schedule for 06-09-2013

(Pre Quarter Finals)

Court – 1

No	Team “A”	Vs	Team “B”	Group	Timing	Result
89	Tamil Nadu	Vs	Madhya Pradesh	Girls	07.00 AM
90	Maharashtra	Vs	Uttar Pradesh	Girls	08.30AM
91	Chhattishgarh	Vs	Tamil Nadu	Boys	10.00AM
92	W/o Madhya Pradesh / Karnataka	Vs	Kerala	Boys	11.30AM
93	Chhattishgarh	Vs	W/O Punjab / Rajasthan	Girls	01.00 PM
94	Delhi	Vs	L/O Karnataka / M.P Vs. Haryana	Boys	02.30 PM
95	Kerala	Vs	W/O Haryana / Karnataka	Girls	04.00 PM
96	Punjab	Vs	W/O Maharashtra / Odisha	Boys	05.30 PM

Court – 2

No	Team “A”	Vs	Team “B”	Group	Timing	Result
Pre Quarter Finals (Knockout) Level – 1
97	Punjab	Vs	Rajasthan	Girls	07.00 AM
98	L/O Karnataka / M.P	Vs	Haryana	Boys	08.30 AM
LEVEL 1 TO LEVEL 2
99	Delhi	Vs	Odisha	Girls	10.00 AM

Court – 3

No	Team “A”	Vs	Team “B”	Group	Timing	Result
Pre Quarter Finals (Knockout) Level – 1
100	Haryana	Vs	Karnataka	Girls	07.00 AM
101	Maharashtra	Vs	Odisha	Boys	08.30 AM

No	Team “A”	Vs	Team “B”	Group	Timing	Result
LEVEL 1 TO LEVEL 2
102	Rajasthan	Vs	Andhra Pradesh	Boys	08.30 AM

All the match results along with the upcoming schedule will be posted on the BFI website. Regular updates can also be viewed on BFI’s Facebook and twitter pages.

Note: This article has been published with permission from the Basketball Federation of India. The original article, on the BFI website, can be accessed here.