Defending champions dumped

Monday was a difficult day for defending champions in the semi-finals of the 62nd National junior basketball championships.

Monday was a difficult day for defending champions in the semi-finals of the 62nd National junior basketball championships. While the boys champions Punjab were knocked out by a spirited Madhya Pradesh side,girls champions Kerala were stretched into overtime by Chhattisgarh before eventually scraping through 75-74.

The result in the boys section was not expected going by both teams pre-match practice. Exuding confidence,Punjab players made their way on to the court,dunking repeatedly during the warm-up. They had come into the semis with a massive 108-67 win over Maharashtra and before that 98-77 against Karnataka,but an early defeat in the competition to UP meant there was a clear chink in their armour,and MP took full advantage of it.

The first half was according to script. Madhya Pradesh fell behind against an attacking Punjab and,at 24-32,were trailing by 8 points at the end of the second quarter. The momentum shifted in the third,with MP staging a 10-point run to outscore Punjab 23-13 and lead 57-50 going into the final quarter. With five minutes of play left,it was Punjab who were trailing by 8 points but there was to be no fightback this time around,Punjab finally going down 75-69. Loveneet Singh was again the fulcrum of Punjabs performance but got little help from his team mates. Loveneet finished with 21 points,9 rebounds and 5 assists while hard-working winger Sunil Bajaj added 17 points.

As the final hooter sounded,the MP bench poured in in celebration and their unabashed elation contradicted their coachs claims that the win was expected. We played as a team. We may not always be the most flashy side but we all worked as a unit and that took us through, said coach Uday Yadav. He added that the main reason for his sides victory was the fact that they managed to convert a majority of their free throws.

Parihar comes to the party

And the key to this was Ankit Singh Parihar,who was successful with 13 of his 15 free throws. He scored another 14 points to finish the matchs top-scorer with 27 points and managed 16 rebounds. Over the course of tournament,I have converted maybe 40 per cent of my free throws. Everything just came together today, he said.

In a way,it was sweet revenge for the MP boys,who had gone down by a single point to Punjab in the semis in the last edition. This wasnt the first time I have played Punjab. We were leading for a major part of the match last year but lost by one point in the last few minutes,so it was a revenge match for us, Ankit said. Having finished third for two years now,MP now have a chance to go on top when they take on Tamil Nadu in the title clash after the latter beat Chhattisgarh 58-68.

In the girls section,defending champions Kerala almost suffered the same ignominy before managing to pull through against Chhattisgarh in the dying moments. Trailing Kerala by 2 points with 13 seconds remaining,KJ Poojamol scored to level the score at 69-all at the end of regulation time.

Story continues below this ad

They then managed to pull ahead in the extra time to win 75-74 and will now try to defend their title against Tamil Nadu,who beat Karnataka 80-51 in the other semifinal.

Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram