The third day of action at the 28th Youth National Basketball Championship in Nagpur, Maharashtra on Saturday was plagued with electricity problems, and several of the games faced delays – but even bad power couldn’t stop a lot of the electrical action on the court. The story of the day was a third consecutive win for the minnow Haryana Girls’ side, who are now threatening to surge deep into the tournament. Their boys side also won their second consecutive game.
Placed in a difficult group with Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh, the Haryana Girls team brought an underrated team to the tournament. But after three days and three wins against each of their opponents, they stand at the top of their group and cruise into the next round.
Haryana Girls faced their toughest challenge against a versatile and dominating Chhattisgarh side today, and in the first quarter, Chhattisgarh started off with their usual vigour. But Haryana hit back strong in the second, going on an incredible run to lead by 13 at halftime. The teams played neck to neck, close basketball in the second, but Chhattisgarh failed to close the gap, as Haryana pulled off another shock and won by 15, 83-68. The high scoring trip of Rimpy (26), Bharti S (20), and Monika V (17) led the way for Haryana. Sangeetha (20) and Poonam Chaturvedi (17) were the high scorers for Chhattisgarh.
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Meanwhile, Haryana boys also continued their positive start, winning their second game of the tournament by defeating a highly favoured Kerala side, 98-61. It was a blowout game from the beginning, as Himanshu Sharma (36) and Rahul Sharma (33) were too much for Kerala: the two played a fantastic fast-break game to leave Kerala in the dust. Sreerang Nair had 26 points for the losing side.
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Chhattisgarh faced another loss, as later in the evening, their boys took part in a match-up against Rajasthan – both the teams featured several athletic players, but it was Rajasthan who took the early initiative and capitalised on Chhattisgarh’s mistakes by taking a big lead. Chhattisgarh began to scheme in a comeback in the final quarter, but it wouldn’t be enough, as Rajasthan won comfortably in the end, 66-51. Rajasthan’s captain Pradeep was on an unstoppable tear, scoring 37 of his team’s points and putting in four three-pointers. Akash of Chhattisgarh had 24 points.
It was another bad outing for the girls from Delhi, as they came up short after a furious comeback against Karnataka. Karnataka were in control of the low scoring game at halftime, leading 28-13, but Delhi improved in the third quarter, and outscored Maharashtra 21-9 in the fourth. But they fell just short in the end, losing by two points, 43-41.
Scores
Boys
Rajasthan (Pradeep 37, Navjot 11) bt. Chhattisgarh (Akash 24) 66-51 (28-13, 12-2, 18-18, 8-18).
Haryana (Himanshu Sharma 36, Rahul Sharma 33) bt Kerala (Sreerang Nair 26) 98-61 (25-10, 15-14, 29-19, 29-18)
Madhya Pradesh bt Andhra Pradesh (G Sai Reddy 10) 57-25 (25-6, 15-8, 6-5, 11-6)
Jammu & Kashmir bt Goa 40-32 (11-6, 13-6, 9-6, 17-4)
Girls
Haryana (Rimpy Hooda 26, Bharti Sihag 20, Monika Vats 17) bt Chhattisgarh (Sangeeta Das 20, Poonam C 17) 83-68 (19-20, 29-15, 13-17, 22-16)
Karnataka (Praneetha S 10) bt Delhi (Ridhi S 13, Mehak T 10) 45-43 (14-10, 14-3, 8-9, 9-21)
Madhya Pradesh (Monica Gurjar 16, Amishi Sharma 10) bt Andhra Pradesh 77-23 (22-10, 19-8, 20-3, 16-2)
Tamil Nadu (Vaishali Khemkar 12, S Hema 11) bt Uttar Pradesh (N Varma 12, Shruthi 11) 47-40 (12-21, 5-6, 10-7, 20-6)
Pondicherry (Akshava Adka 14) bt Chandigarh 52-26 (20-4, 17-8, 6-2, 9-12)
