Youth Basketball: UP boys bt Punjab; Hosts Telangana boys open with win

Bengaluru, 2^nd July 2017:  The 34^th Youth National Basketball Championship for Boys and Girls entered Day 2 today 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.

Mr Narendra, MD of APLL, which is one of the sponsors of the event, and his wife Smt Aruna were the chief guests for the Telangana girls’ game played in the evening. For the Telangana boys’ game Smt Sofi Sam, the only international women’s player from Andhra Pradesh/Telangana was the chief guest.

Maharashtra, UP and Telangana boys post wins

In a significant league encounter this morning, last year’s runners up Uttar Pradesh continued to shine at the U16 level this year too, beating Punjab 68-62. UP (1-0) and Punjab (1-1) are both teams favoured to reach the decisive stages of the Championship so this clash between these strong teams was an excellent appetizer for things to come. Punjab centre Princepal Singh, who is already dominating at the National U18 level and only last month helped his state win the Junior National Championship had 21 points today, but it paled in comparison to UP’s Priyhanshu who scorched his way to 42 game winning points. Scores were tied at the end of the first quarter and remained almost neck and neck going into the halfime. Q3 saw UP pull ahead thanks to 5 straight points by Priyhanshu and by the start of the fourth period UP was up by 8 points, 54-46. Punjab’s Akashdeep Sharma hit 5 threes to complement Princepal, but eventually it was UP that secured the W.

Maharashtra boys beat Chhattisgarh by 1 point, 54-53. This was after they upset Tamil Nadu yesterday 69-67. Maharashtra is now 2-0 and is the top placed team in Group B, with 2 matches still to be played. Just like in the game against Tamil Nadu yesterday, yet again, it was Maharashtra’s captain Tanay Thatte who came through for his side. Tanay’s match-high 25 points also included two clutch freethrows in the final few seconds that secured the win.

Earlier in the morning, hosts Telangana boys opened with a lopsided 59-10 win over Puducherry in lower Level 2 action. Telangana will need to top its Group F and finish among the top two Level 2 teams in order to progress to the knockout stages.

In girls’ Level 1 play, Kerala overcame the disappointment of yesterday’s loss to Karnataka by beating Uttar Pradesh 69-48. Balanced scoring by Kerala, with 4 players posting 15 points or more made it hard for UP to contain their talented opponents. Defending champions Tamil Nadu girls had an easy victory over Punjab, while Karnataka continued to impress by beating Chhattisgarh 57-44.

Later in the evening, the Telangana boys returned to action against Goa, effortlessly beating them 67-22. Telangana boys will now face off against Andhra Pradesh in a blockbuster clash that will decide the winners of Group F. The Telangana girls meanwhile also cruised past Jharkhand 50-16 to go 2-0 in their group with one match remaining.

Results from Day 2 (2^nd July 2017) until 7:00 pm

Girls

Level 1

Group A

1. Tamil Nadu (Monica Jayaseeli 17, Pushpa 12) bt Punjab (Priyanka Behal 14, Radha Rani 7) 60-27 [24-13, 13-6, 11-8, 12-0]

Group B

1. Kerala (Anmariya Johny 17, Sandra KA 16, Aparna Sadasivan 15, Anagha Nair 15) bt Uttar Pradesh (Vartika Kushwaha 23, Muniba Ali 16) 69-48 [14-16, 13-12, 22-10, 20-10]
2. Karnataka (Sanjana Ramesh 19, Grishma N 17, Abigail Deepa 11) bt Chhattisgarh (Neha Karva 19, Elijabet Ekka 7) 57-44 [20-8, 7-9, 16-10, 14-17]

Level 2

Group C

1. Haryana (Suman 17, Ritika 9) bt Goa (Kimeron Vas 8, Naomi Nunes 7)36-15 [3-3, 13-5, 8-4, 12-3]

Group D

1. West Bengal (Jyothi Routh 22, Liza Deb 19) bt Chandigarh (Tarini Boprai 31, Nilisha 6) 61-50 [21-12, 13-14, 13-16, 14-8]
2. Uttarakhand (Divyangana 14, Kamaljit 12) bt Jammu & Kashmir (Chitreshi 4, Ananya 4) 22-8 [2-5, 10-3, 5-0, 5-0]

Group E

1. Delhi (Khushi 11) bt Bihar (Kushi Prakhar 2) 43-2 [10-2, 17-0, 14-0, 2-0]
2. Telangana (Khatrawath Jyothi 12, G Sandhya 8, K Geethika 8) bt Jharkhand (Arpita Mohan 8, Anu Oraon 4) 50-16 [18-4, 14-1, 6-4, 12-7]

Group F

1. Andhra Pradesh (P Sathya Sai 21) bt Assam (Lakshmi Kachari 6) 35-14[15-6, 5-1, 6-4, 9-3]
2. Odisha (Lipramayee 18) bt Puducherry (Monisha 4) 39-21 [8-2, 12-11, 12-4, 7-4]

Boys

Level 1

Group A

1. Rajasthan (Rajveer Singh Bhati 27, Digvijay Singh 14) bt Delhi (Nitish Beniwal 19, Aman Ahlawat 11, Sanskar Nagpal 6) 67-50 [13-12, 22-8, 14-16, 18-14]

Group B

1. Uttar Pradesh (Priyhanshu 42, Shubham Karwasara 9) bt Punjab (Princepal Singh 21, Akashdeep Sharma 17) 68-62 [12-12, 18-17, 24-17, 14-16]
2. Maharashtra (Tanay Thatte 25, Om Pawar 14, Arjun Yadav 4) bt Chhattisgarh (Ayushman Singh 16, Govind 15, Ritesh Yadav 9) 54-53 [17-21, 10-9, 9-11, 18-12]

Level 2

Group C

1. Jammu & Kashmir (Shivam Heer 43, Harithik Choudhary 19) bt Chandigarh (Jaskaran Brar 24, Abhinav Sharma 17, Sahaij Pratap Singh Sekhon 14) 79-76 [19-18, 16-20, 17-20, 27-18]

Group D

1. Gujarat (Rishabh Chaudhary 15, Jayraj Jadeja 11) bt Bihar (Md Wasit Ali Sufi 14, Dharmendar Kumar 11, Mannu Singh 10) 57-46 [16-13, 19-12, 10-14, 12-7]

Group E

1. Madhya Pradesh bt Tripura walkover*
2. Assam (Deepjyothi Brahma 16, Salew Kadete 11) bt Odisha (Harshvardhan Nayak 11, Ankit Barla 10) 67-44 [21-10, 14-7, 16-10, 16-17]

Group F

1. Telangana (Vighneshwar Upadhyay 21, Aman Topno 12) bt Goa (Daniel Godinho 4, Primamsji Triparthi 4) 67-22 [25-6, 11-4, 17-8, 14-4]
2. Telangana (Vinay Kothari 11, Vighneshwar 11, Sumant Marni 10) bt Puducherry (P Pavithran 6) 59-10 [22-4, 17-0, 14-4, 6-2]- This match was originally scheduled to be played on 1^st July but was subsequently postponed.
3. Andhra Pradesh (S V V Sai Krishna 14, M Mani Kanta 10) bt Puducherry (P Pavithran 9, D Nandagopalan 4) 77-19 [24-2, 13-8, 22-5, 18-4]

*The Tripura boys team has withdrawn itself from the Championship.