State lads bow out

NEW DELHI, June 20: Maharashtra boys were done in by their impetuosity, as it happened against Uttar Pradesh the other evening, and lost what would have been a golden opportunity to enter the knock-out stage of the SAIL-sponsored 48th Junior National Basketball Championships at the DPS (RK Puram) courts here today.However, this cleared the way for last year’s semi-finalists Kerala, who won 54-45, to grab the top spot in group C and gain entry into the last eight. But for such an entry, the Kerala boys had to not only fight the brilliant combine of Sambhaji Kadam and Vishal Bagi but also the intermittent rain.The Maharashtra lads had all the aces up their sleeves in the first half but lost way after the break, when they led 30-22.This was when the Kerala boys shifted gears and stepped on the gas, thanks to Subhash J Shenoy and Ajesh P B. The clueless Maharashtra lads were bent on committing needless fouls and even Kadam blotted his copy book with unnecessary aggression on the tall Shenoy. Delhi bowed out of the championship when they went down 25-46 to Rajasthan, who topped pool D and made a direct entry into the quarters. Gujarat, who beat Delhi yesterday, entered the pre-quarters.

RESULTS

Boys: Pool A: MP (Ashok Sharma 14, Bipin Chandra 12) bt Bihar (Mahhar Ali 9) 49-28 (31-17); Pool C: UP (Dilip Kumar 18, Satish Kumar 8) bt Goa 52-2 (HT 32-2), Kerala (SJ Shenoy 21) bt Maharashtra (Vishal Bagi 22) 54-45 (22-30); Pool D: Rajasthan (Manohar 13, Man Singh 10) bt Delhi (Ashok Kumar 15, 3×3) 45-26 (32-15); Gujarat bt Orissa 59-46 (26-28); Pool E: T N (Sai Sushant 1, Paul Patrick 10) bt J & K (Rohit Chibber 10) 52-28 (36-13).Girls: Pool A: T N bt UP 27-46 (35-26); Pool B: Kerala 54 ( Jetty Jose 11, Renjini Jose 16) bt Delhi 19 (29-7); Pool C: AP (Sofi Sam 22) bt W Bengal (K Ghosh 15) 40-37 (27-15), Karnataka (Prarthana 10) bt Gujarat 51-8 (26-5), WB bt Gujarat 27-2 (15-0); Pool D: Maharashtra (Sapna Tunge 12) bt HP 77-25 (28-22); MP (Anita 10) bt Rajasthan 47-22 (33-12); Pool E: Punjab (Varsha 21, Geetu 14) bt Haryana 47-34 (25-18), Orissa (Pratvi Prusty 10) bt J & K 34-13 (25-13).