Tamil Nadu, Punjab boys storm into finals

Tamil Nadu teams were on a roll as their boys and girls won the semifinals to advance into the final 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 Monday.

On the penultimate day of the eight-day championship, in the first semifinal, Tamil Nadu boys registered an upset victory over reigning champions Rajasthan 82-77. Rajasthan were leading 25-17 in the first quarter, but Tamil Nadu bounced back in the next quarter to take the lead (44-41). Rajasthan again surged ahead in the third quarter (68-59), however, TN boys not only wiped the deficit but went out to wrap up the issue and secured a berth in the title clash.

Akash, Mithun Vel and Venkat Dhanush N were the main architects of TN’s win, contributing 27, 14 and 16 points, respectively, while for the losing side, Piyush Choudhary and skipper Lokesh Kumar Sharma sank in 23 and 22 points, respectively.

Hosts Punjab, after some hiccups, managed to scrape past Kerala 78-70 to enter the final, wherein they will clash with Tamil Nadu.

In the girls’ semifinal, Tamil Nadu proved too good for last years’ bronze medallists Maharashtra whom they beat convincingly (90-62) to advance into the final with Jeffrin A emerging as the top scorer (25 points). Yuvasree P contributed 14 points and Swetha G dropped in 13 points, whereas for Maharashtra Aarya Phatangare, Vedika Singh and Tvishaa Sharma chipped in with 18, 19 and 13 points, respectively.

In the second semifinal (girls), Gujarat, who stunned reigning champions Karnataka on the opening day of the championship, gave another fine performance as they edged out their spirited opponents from Haryana whom they overpowered 87-79 to set up the summit clash with Tamil Nadu.

Gujarat captain Aahna George played a pivot role in the game, scoring 31 points and was well assisted by Archi Patel and Vidhiben Baria who accounted for 19 and 18 points, respectively. For Haryana, Garima and Bhumi Kataria scored 24 points each.

In the match to decide the fifth and sixth positions, in the boys’ section, Uttar Pradesh drubbed Madhya Pradesh 77-38 and in the match for the seventh and eight spots, Haryana squeezed past Karnataka 82-80. In the match for the ninth and tenth positions, Delhi got the better of Chandigarh 65-60.

Likewise, in the girls’ category, Kerala beat Punjab 66-46 to finish at fifth place, in the match for seventh and eighth Karnataka outperformed Uttar Pradesh 74-47 and in the match for ninth and tenth spots, Chhattisgarh defeated Rajasthan 81-50.