Indian Basketball Youth Nationals: Day 4 Results

A large and raucous crowd was in attendance as the host Maharashtra teams gave basketball fans a treat, with back to back wins by both their girls and their boys teams on the fourth day of group games at the 28^th Youth National Basketball Championship at the Divisional Sports Complex in Nagpur on Sunday.

Maharashtra boys sprung one of the biggest surprises of the tournament by defeating the highly favoured and lengthy Punjab side, who are also the holding champions of the Youth National Trophy. It was the third win out of four games for an improving Maharashtra, but this one wasn’t without its end game theatrics. After trailing at halftime, Maharashtra had an incredible run in the third, riding the home support to outscore Punjab 31-13 in the quarter. Punjab began to etch a comeback in the fourth, and made it a three point game with less than 15 seconds on the clock. But Maha Boys successfully ran down the clock and broke into jubilant celebrations as time expired after an emotional victory, 73-70. Maharashtra qualified for the Quarter-Finals after this win.

Maharashtra Boys were on top of Punjab

Ibrahim Sheikh was once again an inspirational leader for Maharashtra, scoring 18 points to go with 11 rebounds. For Punjab, a 25-point outburst by Khushmit Singh couldn’t save his side from defeat. Hemant Sabarwal added 17 for the losing side.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Girls’ side had a much easier route to victory, as they won their fourth successive game of the tournament, defeating Karnataka. National level star Shireen Limaye was at her unstoppable best, scoring 19 points and grabbing 13 rebounds, many of them on the offensive end, to make the game a no show by halftime.

Girls’ holders Kerala bounced back after a close defeat to Maharashtra last night and took out their frustrations on the hapless Punjab. Arthy of Kerala scored 23 points, outscoring the entire Punjab squad, as Kerala took an early lead and played strong defense for the rest of the game for a 73-22 win.

The boys’ team from Delhi have had a quietly confident start to the tournament, and currently stand 3-0 after their first three games. Their third successive win was against Karnataka on Sunday morning: Delhi took a 20 point lead after good offensive play in the first half, and then cruised the rest of the way for a 67-52 win. Pankaj Rathi (21) and Akimjeet (18) were the stars for Delhi, while Karnataka’s top man was the highly skilled Jeethender with 20.

Scores

Boys

Maharashtra (Ibrahim Sheikh 18, Rohan Jagtap 15, Salim Malik 15) bt. Punjab (Khusmit Singh 25, Hemant Sabarwal 25, Loveneet Singh 13) 73-70 (18-23, 11-11, 31-13, 11-23).

Rajasthan (Pradeep Kumar 25, Anmil Singh 25) bt Uttrakhand (Suraj 18) 77-44 (30-15, 14-15, 16-5, 17-9)

Uttar Pradesh (Lalit Kumar 28, Abhishek 11, Rahul Sharma 11) bt West Bengal (Sagar 23) 79-57(18-12, 25-20, 15-13, 21-12)

Delhi (Pankaj Rathi 21, Akimjeet 18) bt Karnataka (Jeethender 20) 67-52 (24-10, 15-9, 10-12, 18-21)

Madhya Pradesh (Anam Ali 15, Abdul Rahim 15) bt Chhattisgarh (Akash Thakur 25) 72-45 (25-9, 13-6, 16-13, 18-17)

Haryana (Himanshu Sharma 30, Rakesh 28) bt Jharkhand (Rohit A 15) 112-42 (33-16, 38-17, 20-5, 21-4)

Girls

Maharashtra (Shireen Limaye 19, Ishwari Pingle 12, Kritika Divadkar 10) bt. Karnataka 63-29 (16-8, 22-9, 17-4, 8-9).

Tamil Nadu (Hema 14) bt. Uttarakhand 50-17 (27-3, 7-4, 11-0, 5-10).

Uttar Pradesh (Shruti 25, Garima 16) bt Chhattisgarh (Anjana 21, Sangeeta Das 15) 68-65 (11-20, 17-18, 22-11, 18-16)

Madhya Pradesh (Amishi 20, Monica Gaur 20) bt Rajasthan (Nisha S 18, Jaswant Rathore 11) 57-54 (19-17, 18-9, 11-14, 9-14)

Kerala (Arthy 23, Prami P Lal 13) bt Punjab (Nirmal Kaur 11) 73-22 (26-10, 23-2, 12-5, 12-5)

West Bengal (Maadhu Kumari 37, Rupkatha 23) bt Pondicherry (Shammogh 21) 81-71 (24-21, 24-21, 21-11, 12-18)