Haryana, Delhi boys script victories

Haryana and Delhi scripted victories in the boys’ section of the league matches during the ongoing 75th Junior National Basketball Championship for Boys and Girls, being organised by the Punjab Basketball Association under the auspices of Basketball Federation of India at Guru Nanak Stadium, here on Wednesday. In the match, played yesterday evening, hosts Punjab boys fought valiantly to overpower their spirited opponents from Uttar Pradesh whom they outnumbered 74-67.

Today, Haryana (boys) survived a scare against Chandigarh before clinching the issue 76-65, while Delhi won hands down (50-9) against Meghalaya.

In the girls’ section, Delhi outplayed Uttarakhand 55-47 and Chandigarh defeated Puducherry 57-52. In another match, Gujrat scored an easy (78-49) win over Madhya Pradesh to register their second consecutive victory. Yesterday, they scored an upset win against the reigning champions, Karnataka 67-44.

In other matches, in the girls’ group, Maharashtra survived many anxious moments against Rajasthan before winning by a narrow margin 64-62, West Bengal pipped Goa in a low-scoring match 38-33, Kerala trounced Himachal Pradesh 64-19 and Andhra Pradesh scraped past Jharkhand 34-32.

In the boys’ category, West Bengal toyed with Andaman and Nicobar whom they overwhelmed 72-18, Kerala beat Uttar Pradesh 71-59, Madhya Pradesh proved too good for Maharashtra as the former came out triumphant 72-63, Telangana faced a little challenge from Bihar, wrapping up the issue comfortably (70-43), Odisha too got the better of Goa 82-68, Gujrat outclassed Mizoram 57-50, Jammu and Kashmir registered 65-42 win against Manipur and Himachal Pradesh outperformed Chhattisgarh 50-40.