CHANDIGARH, SEPT 7 : It proved to be 60 seconds too long for Tamil Nadu boys in their semifinal match against Delhi in the 64th Junior National Basketball Tournament being held in Cuttack today. The two evenly matched teams from opposite groups went head to head for the first time in the Junior Nationals. With ten lead changes and scores getting tied seven times, it was anybody’s game for most part. That is, of course, until that one fateful minute in the fourth quarter.
After repeatedly drawing within one point of Delhi, the boys from down south committed hara-kiri on both ends of the floor in the penultimate minute of the game. The seasoned Delhi side, featuring five players who have represented India internationally, took full advantage of TN’s mental lapses to score a brisk ten points to win, 92-75.
Punjab overcame a stiff resistance from Kerala whom they beat by 80-75. Strong contenders Punjab won the first quarter by five points (25-20). In closely fought next two quarters, Kerala just managed to win by 14-12, 18-17 and at the end of third quarter the scores were 54-52. The last quarter turned out to be now-or-never. Punjab clinched it by 26-23.
Satnam Singh (26), Rajveer (20), Khushmeet (16) and Loveneet Singh (10) were the principal scorers for Punjab. For Kerala Sreerag top-scored with 22 and he was given good support by Akhil (14), Jishnu (13), Arun (10) and Ajith (10).
Earlier in the day, Chhattisgarh girls, led by their conspicuous 6 ft 7 inch centre Poonam Chaturvedi snuffed out any hopes that Tamil Nadu may have harboured of pulling off an unlikely win. Chhattisgarh had already comprehensively beaten Tamil Nadu earlier on in the league stage of this championship.
Today, led by the mighty Poonam, Chhattisgarh turned it up another notch. Poonam regularly scores more than half of her team’s points. In this semifinal match against Tamil Nadu, Poonam came up with her highest score of the tournament with 67 points, bettering her previous mark of 63 against the same opponents. Her teammates did well to selflessly feed her the ball under the basket. Chhattisgarh will look to repeat the same unstoppable strategy in the finals when they face Kerala. In a late evening match, Kerala girls had overcome a stiff challenge by Maharashtra to book their spot in the Championship match.
Apart from the semifinal matches, classification matches for the 5th to 10th placed teams were also held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium and Barabati Stadium Complex, Cuttack.
Results: Level 1 (Semi – finals): Boys: Punjab (Satnam Singh 26, Rajveer 20, Khushmeet 16, Loveneet Singh 10) bt Kerala (Sreerag 22, Akhil 14, Jishnu 13, Arun 10, Ajith 10) 80-75 (25-20, 12-14, 17-18, 26-23)
Delhi (A.S.Sohal 37, Pardeep 17, Narendra 17, Gaurav 15) bt Tamil Nadu (S.Karthickeyan 23, P.Vijay 17, G.Anto Bethle 14) 92-75 (22-18, 20-22, 18-15, 32-20)
Girls: Kerala (Poojamol 30, Grima 22, Elizabeth 19) bt Maharashtra (Sruthi 24, Shireen 23, Ishwari 14, Krittika 14) 88-84 (17-20, 17-20, 29-18, 25-26).
Chhattishgarh (Poonam Chaturvedi 67, Kavita 16, Sangeeta 16) bt Tamil Nadu (R.Selvamithra 17, K. Rajlaxmi Devi 11, S.Pavithira 10) 110-79 (29-18, 25-18, 36-23, 20-20)
Loser’s Knockout finals: Boys: Jharkhand (Gurwinder 20, Sukhdeep 10) bt Bihar (Dheeraj Ranjan 12, Rupesh Kumar 8) 50-31 (14-9, 12-6, 10-12, 14-4)
Girls: Andhra Pradesh (M.Sreetha 23, A. Jammavi 6) bt Assam (Prinita 10, Mumtaz 7, R.Uma 6) 48-33 (20-13, 15-6, 6-8, 7-6)
9th and 10th places: Boys: Haryana (Rahul 31, Naveen 25, Pardeep 22) bt Maharashtra (Pranav Wagle 17, Harshal Parab 9, Salman Shaikh 8) 88-64 (23-17, 19-19, 15-15, 31-13)
Girls: Punjab (Nirmal Kaur 23, Kulwinder Kaur 20, Navdeep Kaur 12) bt Haryana (Suman Pannu 15, Savita Gadwal 13) 82-45 (20-14, 22-8, 22-13, 18-10)
Classification for 5th, and 6th, 7th and 8th places: Boys: Madhya Pradesh (Brigey 21, Ashiv 10) bt Chhattishgarh (Sanjeev Kumar 13, Tarendra Kumar Yadav 11) 74-69 (18-10, 19-18, 21-22, 16-19)
Karnataka (Sharath.M 25, Clinton 15, Gagan Reddy 8) bt Odisha (Amarajit Pandey 27, Firoj Barwa 14, Rudrakanta Sahou 8) 69-68 (16-18, 15-14, 24-9, 14-27).
Girls: Rajasthan (Nish Sharma 17, Usha 16) bt Madhya Pradesh (Monal 13, Bharti 6) 65-40 (17-9, 10-10, 19-9, 19-12)
Uttar Pradesh (Preeti Kumari 19, Niharika Verma 14, Barkha Sonkar 11) bt Karnataka (Ashwariya 7, Supriya 6) 64-36 (19-12, 26-7, 10-6, 9-11).
For 5th and 6th places: Boys: Madhya Pradesh (Abdul 19, Lalit 17) bt Karnataka (Sharath 14, Clinton 14) 88-68 (11-21, 24-7, 24-19, 29-21).
Girls:Uttar Pradesh (Sakhi Sharma 21, Barkha Sonkar 21) bt Rajasthan (Nisha Sharma 27, Anita 13) 82-58 (22-15, 26-17, 10-9, 24-17).
For 7th and 8th Place: Boys: Odisha (Amarjit Pandey 19, Bharat Tamsoy 16, Rudrakanta Sahou 13) bt Chhattishgarh (Sanjeev Kumar 16, P. Murali 16, Tarcndra Yadav 16) 89-76 (25-15, 13-24, 26-15, 25-22)
Girls: Madhya Pradesh (Monica Gurjar 22, Princy S.Rathore 19, Monal Singh 7) bt Karnataka (Ranjeetha 16, Akshay 9, Supriya 9) 63-55 (12-12, 10-11, 26-24, 15-8).