Bengaluru, 1st July 2017: The 34th Youth National Basketball Championship for Boys and Girls has tipped off at the Indoor Stadium, Gachibowli in Hyderabad.
The Championship is being organized by the Hyderabad District Basketball Association under the aegis of the Telangana Basketball Association and the Basketball Federation of India.
Morning Session
In the morning matches so far, defending champions Tamil Nadu girls have opened with an easy 76-31 win over Rajasthan. In the boys section, Karnataka and Punjab also registered important victories over Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh respectively. Last year’s semifinalists Karnataka trailed at the end of the first and second quarters before a strong showing in the third period saw them outlast their opponents from western India. In the Punjab vs Chhattisgarh boys game, repeated turnovers in the third quarter cost Chhattisgarh dearly as Punjab was able to pull away for the easy double digit win.
Arguably the most exciting match of the morning was between Haryana and Delhi boys. This level 1 Group A league encounter started with Delhi dominating, with 14-7 and 13-9 opening quarters. That’s when the momentum shifted drastically towards Haryana who clawed their way back in the second half. A buzzer beating two pointer by Haryana’s Mukesh pushed the game into overtime and they continued to shine in the extra five minutes to hand Delhi the heartbreaking loss.
In lower level 2 games, Himachal Pradesh boys and girls, West Bengal girls and MP girls too posted victories in their respective bids to get elevated to Level 1.
Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony was in the afternoon, with Shri T Padma Rao Goud (Minister for Sports and Youth Services as well as Excise & Prohibition) and Shri Dr Vivek Anand (Advisor to Government of Telangana & Chairman & Managing Director, Visaka Groups) as chief guests. Guests of honour include Shri G Kishan Reddy (MLA, BJP), Shri Burra Venkatesam (Telangana Principal Secretary, Youth Affairs & Sports), Shri K Govindaraj (President, BFI), Shri Chander Mukhi Sharma (General Secretary, BFI) and Shri Ragothaman (Treasurer, BFI). Special invitees include Shri Ranga Rao (President, Olympic Association of Telangana), Smt Dr Vidya Sravanthi (Co-option Member, GMHC), Shri S R Prem Raj (General Secretary, Olympic Association of Telangana) and Shri Arvind Krishna (Film Actor).
Don Bosco School, Hyderabad were particularly entertaining with their innovative basketball themed performance that was enjoyed and appreciated by all those present.
Later in the evening hosts Telangana girls got off to a dream start beating Bihar 42-10.
Results from Day 1 (1st July 2017) until 7:00 pm
Girls
Level 1
Group A
- Tamil Nadu (S Pushpa 14, S Lakshmipriya 13, Monica 10) bt Rajasthan (Ankita Mandia 11, Shatakshi 9, Akshita 8) 76-31 [25-8, 25-10, 14-9, 12-4]
- Maharashtra (Suzanne 15, Shruti Bhosale 13) bt Punjab (Heena 17, Radha Rani 15) 57-47 [18-10, 9-7, 7-14, 23-16]
Group B
- Chhattisgarh (Elizabeth Ekka 24, M Nagmani 11) bt Gujarat (Naina Patel 16, Hetushree S 6) 69-35 [15-9, 20-7, 19-11, 15-8]
Level 2
Group C
- Himachal Pradesh (Pallavi 14, Ramandeep 9, Ananya 8) bt Goa (Katherine Barr 10, Shimei Nathan 6) 49-27 [18-4, 12-6, 14-10, 5-7]
Group D
- West Bengal (J Routh 18, B Das 12, M Singh 12) bt Uttarakhand (Srishti Sharma 14) 74-20 [18-0, 15-0, 17-6, 24-14]
Group E
- Telangana (G Sandhya 9, Aarya 8) bt Bihar (Kavya 5) 42-10 [18-3, 8-2, 10-2, 6-3]
Group F
- Odisha (Lipramayee 23, Swagatika 13) bt Andhra Pradesh (V Satwika 12, R Swetha 11) 46-41 [11-7, 13-8, 12-6, 10-20]
Boys
Level 1
Group A
- Karnataka (Prashant T 21, Akshan Rao 13, S Sreenivas 10) bt Rajasthan(Kuldeep Singh 23, Digvijay 16, Rajveer 10) 70-65 [13-18, 21-17, 27-16, 9-14]
- Haryana (Mukesh 24, Gaurav 18) bt Delhi (Nitish 29, Aman 20) 69-65 [14-7, 13-9, 16-23, 17-21, 9-5(OT)]
Group B
- Punjab (Akashdeep Sharma 27, H Singh 9, Md Singh Gill 8) bt Chhattisgarh (Ayushman Singh 14, Govind 11, Ritesh Yadav 08) 55-42 [16-8, 04-12, 18-9, 17-13]
Group C
- West Bengal (Avijit Monkar 37) bt Jammu & Kashmir (Shivam Heer 21, Harithik C 14) 70-51 [25-19, 11-12, 18-9, 16-11]
Level 2
Group C
- Himachal Pradesh (Abhay 25, S Singh 13, Sahil 6) bt Chandigarh(Sahaij 15, Jaskaran 15, Harkirat 08) 61-55 [6-18, 16-8, 14-11, 25-18]
Group E
- Madhya Pradesh (Uday Veer Yadav 29, Divyaraj Singh 23, Mani Thakur 6) bt Odisha (Chitta Ranjan 8, Harsh Vardhar 7, Soilen Mondal 7) 62-26 [23-06, 17-09, 18-06, 04-05]
