Punjab girls lose to Haryana in quaterfinals

Hosts and last years’ silver medallists, Punjab, in the girls section, waged a spirited battle against neighbours Haryana before losing the quarterfinal 59-72 on the sixth day in the ongoing 75th Junior National Basketball Championship being organised by the Punjab Basketball Association under the auspices of Basketball Federation of India at Guru Nanak Stadium here on Sunday. The two sides were locked 35-35 at the end of second quarter.

In a battle of nerves, Haryana’s skipper Kafi, along with Myrah Babbar and Bhumi Kataria, carried the team to victory, chipping in with 34, 16 and 11 points, respectively. Kafi’s outstanding performance included five three-pointers, while for the losing side, captain Chanda Gouttam and Tishmeet Kaur fought valiantly, sinking in 18 and 17 points, respectively, and Gagandeep Kaur contributed 11 points.

In the boys’ section (quarterfinal), Rajasthan proved their mettle, edging out last year’s bronze medallists Madhya Pradesh 80-66 after leading 37-29 at half time.

For the winning side, Piyush Choudhary was the highest scorer, basking in 24 points, followed by Bhupendra Singh Rathore, who scored 17 points, and skipper Lokesh Kumar Sharma with 14 points.

Mohit Jog Chand of Madhya Pradesh played exceedingly well and dropped in 25 points and Rohit scored 10 points, while Rohan Nema and M Arzan Khan accounted for eight points each to reduce the margin.

However, in the girl’s section (quarterfinal), the reigning champions Karnataka appeared to be clueless against Maharashtra, the third placed in the previous edition of the championship. Maharashtra players gave their opponents no chance to settle down and clinched the issue comfortably (75-43). The winners established a comfortable lead (42-15) at half-time.

Maharashtra’s captain Vedika Singh led from the front, scoring 17 points, while Aary Phatangare and Harshala Patil, chipped in with 15 and 10 points, respectively, whereas for Karnataka, Tisha (18) and Nidhi Umesh (10) fought a losing battle.

In other matches, in the girls section, Kerala beat Rajasthan 79-53, Delhi defeated Chandigarh 83-66, Uttar Pradesh prevailed over Chhattisgarh 60-51, while in the boy’s group, Uttar Pradesh outperformed Delhi 81-55, Mizoram outclassed Uttarakhand 65-57, Kerala defeated Haryana 83-77, Karnataka beat Chandigarh 80-52 and Himachal Pradesh got the better of West Bengal 63-53.