PUDUCHERRY, FEB 8 : Chhattisgarh had a mixed fortune in the Arise Steel 42nd Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship which concluded here this evening. While Chhattisgarh girls emerged victorious against formidable Tamil Nadu by 54-48 (21-8, 8-9, 9-14, 16-17) in the final, Chhattisgarh boys went down fighting to Madhya Pradesh in extra time by 64-59 (12-15, 8-16, 15-8, 18-14, Extra time 11-6) in the action-packed final.
Chhattisgarh girls went one better than last year to clinch the gold medal by beating Tamil Nadu by 54-48 (21-8, 8-9, 9-14, 16-17) in the final of the Arise Steel 42nd Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship here today.
Chhattisgarh started the game with intent against Tamil Nadu, who looked sluggish in the first quarter. With decisive drives to the basket and open shots coming out of good ball movement, the Chhattisgarh girls built a 12-point lead with the score at 21-8 at the end of the first quarter. But Tamil Nadu were not going down without a fight, as they began to crawl their way back into the contest.
Tamil Nadu centre Pavithra Sree led the charge yet again for her team as she poured in 16 points to go with a massive 19 rebounds. However, there was little contribution from her teammates as the only other double-digit scorer was M. Deepa with 10 points. The first quarter hurt Tamil Nadu for the rest of the game, as Chhattisgarh managed to score just about enough to keep Tamil Nadu at bay.
Chhattisgarh’s Elijabet Ekka, who is a possible MVP candidate, put in a game-high 24 points. Chhattisgarh also got contributions from Shweta and Neha who scored 13 and 10 points respectively. In the end, Tamil Nadu were unable to bridge the gap and Chhattisgarh won the game by 6 points 54-48. They went one better than last year to clinch the gold medal this time around.
The Chhattisgarh boys were today pitted against faced defending champions Madhya Pradesh. Both teams went into the contest evenly matched with no clear favourite. The match lived up to its billing as it took an extra five minutes of play to decide the result.
The first half belong to the Chhattisgarh boys as they outplayed the defending champions while building a double-digit lead. Madhya Pradesh managed to put up only 20 points in the first half and entered the second half down by 11 points.
But MP switched gears in the second half as they fought their way back, cutting down the deficit one possession at a time. Chhattisgarh found it difficult to contain MP duo of Jeet Kharwar and Brijesh Tiwari as they put in 21 points and 19 rebounds respectively. Each of them had double-digit rebounds as well, with Jeet pulling down 16 rebounds, helping his team outrebound Chhattisgarh 53 to 38.
As MP pulled back into the contest, Chhattisgarh fought to stay in the lead. Down two points with less than 30 seconds to go, Chhattisgarh equalised with just 10 seconds left on the clock. MP was unable to convert on the final possession of regular time and the game went into an extra five minutes. The MP boys held their composure in the extra time period and outscored Chhattisgarh by 5 points to close out the game at 64-59 and clinch gold for the second straight year.
The winning teams were awarded a cash prize of Rs 50,000 each, while the runners up were awarded Rs 30,000 each. The third placed teams received a cash prize of Rs 20,000 each.
Earlier in the day, the fight for the bronze medal took place in the girls’ and boys’ categories. In the girls 3rd place match, the Maharashtra girls comfortably defeated Madhya Pradesh 63-36 to capture the bronze medal. Maharashtra was led by Suzanne’s 14 points, along with 12 points from Siya Suresh off the bench.
In the boys’ category, Rajasthan clinched 3rd place defeating Uttar Pradesh in a close game 71-66. Despite a few late mistakes, Rajasthan held on to their slim lead to close out the game and take home the bronze medal. Rajveer’s 21 points were crucial for Rajasthan. Uttar Pradesh’s Priyanshu put up a game-high 25 points in a losing effort.
Results Finals: Girls: Chhattisgarh (Elijabet Ekka 24, Shweta S. 13, Neha K. 10) bt Tamil Nadu (Pavithra Sree 16, M. Deepa 10, G. Harivardini 9) 54-48 (21-8, 8-9, 9-14, 16-17)
Boys: Madhya Pradesh (Jeet Kharwar 21, Brijesh Tiwari 19, Pankaj Singh 8) bt Chhattisgarh (Sajjad Ali 13, Rishab Jaiswal 12, Harsh Singh 12) 64-59 (12-15, 8-16, 15-8, 18-14, Extra time 11-6)
3rd and 4th place matches: Girls: Maharashtra (Suzanne 14, Siya Suresh 12) bt Madhya Pradesh (Rajvi Desai 12, Shweta 12) 63-36 (21-13, 17-6, 12-11, 13-6).
Boys: Rajasthan (Rajveer S. 21, Devendra T. 10) bt Uttar Pradesh (Priyanshu 25, Aniket 16) 71-66 (22-18, 12-11, 19-16, 18-11).
Classification for 5th and 6th places:
Girls: Karnataka (Pavithra 14) bt Uttar Pradesh (Anushka 8) 46-39 (14-11, 11-12, 10-11, 11-5). Boys: Andhra Pradesh (Ghouse Mohiddin 24, Sai Pavan Kumar 24) bt Maharashtra (Sayeed Mudassir 21, Pritish Jitesh 12) 90-77 (28-16, 21-21, 19-16, 22-24.