KAPURTHALA, JUNE 15:Trailling 34-35 with only two seconds left, Jharkhand snatched a thrilling victory by a wafer-thin one point margin (36-35) against defending champions Chattisgarh in a boys pool B encounter on the inaugural day of the 35th Sub-Junior National Basketball Championships here today.
Two free throws were awaded to Jharkhand after Akash Bagchi committed a foul with two second left. Arun Mehta converted these free throws to clinch the issue in Jharkhand’s favour.
Chattisgarh were leading at the end of first quarter by 12-11 points. Jharkhand gained a four -points lead in the second quarter, the score being 21-17. At the end of third quarter Chattishgarh were leading by one point 29-28. They maintained one point lead till last two seconds and were unlucky to surrender the match. For Jharkhand, Akash Nayak (12 points), Nitesh (4), Md.Nasim (4), Maninder (6), and Arun Mehta (4) were the main scorers. For Chattisgarh, Ajay Partap Singh (16), Akash Bagchi (8) and Bal Krishna (6) were main scorers.
In a boys pool D match Tamil Nadu defeated Madhya Pradesh by 53-46 points, after having tied at 25-all at the end of second quarter. In another pool D match Kerala beat Chandigarh by 46-13 points.
In boys pool C match between Rajasthan scored at will to whip Gujarat by 59-06 points.
In the girls section Pool A match last year’s champions Chattisgarh thrashed Gujarat by by 80-5 points to serve an early warning to their opponents
In a pool E match Madhya Pradesh girls defeated Rajasthan
by 29-18 points, after 16-10 at the end of second quarter.
In pool F Jharkhand girls exhibiting skills and speed defeated Kerala by 35-16 points.
Heavy ain could not dampen the sprit of the organizers. A good number of volunteers worked so hard to clean the courts repeatedly .