News

Noida, 11th June 2017:
The 68th Junior National Basketball Championship has concluded at Shiv Nadar University, with Tamil Nadu girls and Punjab boys being crowned champions: Kerala Boys again has to retain with a Silver spot has they went down to Punjab 82-100 while Girls avenged their defeat they had from Karnataka in the League round as they beat Karnataka 68-52 to Claim the Bronze .
In the Jr Men final, both teams came into the final with an unbeaten record to decide the champions for Kerala Muhammed Shiraz with22 points followed by Joshua George scoring 20, Amal Ragh with 16, and SejinMathew scored14 for PPunjab Mandeep Singh was the Topscorer with 33 points and Gurvinder Sing scored 30

Kerala Came into the Final topping Group B Defeating Chandigarh 92-82, Maharashtra 66-50, Delhi 93-83 and Drubbing Telangana 109-26. In the Quarter final beating Haryana 85-82 and In Semi defeating Rajasthan 92-86

Punjab came into the Final authoritatively beating Haryana79-55, Rajasthan 91-64, Tamil Nadu 68-45 and Chhattisgarh 75-42 and in the Quarter final beating Delhi 88-43 and in Semi Final Tamil Nadu 70-54

In Jr Women Division International Sreekala R was unstoppable today has she scored 42 points for Kerala which lead 32-27 at the Interval and Increased the lead to 53-35 and finished the game with 68-52 victory

Rajasthan boys finished the third spot defeating Tamil Nadu 85-78

Kerala Women Team was coached by Thomas Chandy from Kerala State Sports Council and was Assisted by Anil Kumar MB from Don Bosco Vaduthala and Managed by Rilja Babu from Thrissur

Kerala Men was coached by SudeepBose Kasargod, Coach with Kerala State Sports Council and Assisted by Suni K Joint Secretary of Kerala Basketball Association and Managed by Anil, Kumar MB from Don Bosco Vaduthala

The winners received Rs 1,00,000/-, first runners-up received Rs 75,000/- while the second runners-up got Rs 50,000/-, from Chief Guest Archana Ramasundaram, DG of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). Mr. Chander Mukhi Sharma, Secretary General of the Basketball Federation of India, Dr. Mrs. Seema Sharma, President, UP Basketball Association (UPBA); Mr. Alok Sharma, Additional Director General, Sashastra Seema Bal and patron of the UPBA and Mr. Bhupendra Shahi, Hon. Secretary, UPBA.

Final Reports Tamil Nadu girls bt Uttar Pradesh 69-63
Junior women’s champs Tamil Nadu
Having created history by reaching the final for the first time ever, Uttar Pradesh junior women seemed to continue from where they left off in the semis. Scorching hot in the first five minutes, UP showcased its full offensive repertoire. Initially guard Shreyasi Vats got two impossible hook shots to sail through the net, which was then inevitably followed by international scoring forward Vaishnavi Yadav taking over with some penetrating drives and a step back three. UP led early, and defensively, did a great job getting bodies on Tamil Nadu’s starting center S Pushpa. With Pushpa constantly double teamed down low, it was left to international forward Srishti Suren to capitalize as she got some mid-range jumpers to fall. At the end of the first quarter, Uttar Pradesh held a 20-16 lead.

The second quarter saw sloppy play from both teams as they turned the ball over repeatedly. Tamil Nadu’s international point guard M Nishanthi was guilty of missing easy layups. UP took advantage, as Vaishnavi continued her blistering pace of scoring, including an awe-inspiring baseline euro step finishing with a smart left-hand layup. By halftime, UP had doubled its lead to 8 points, 34-26.

The error-prone TN side finally got into a rhythm post the halftime break. With its defense clamping down, UP was unable to score on repeated possessions and a three-pointer by TN’s Amritha tied the game at 36 all. TN center Pushpa followed that up with her own offensive onslaught, finally breaking free from the shackles imposed on her by rival forwards Kavya Dwivedi and Reena Patel. At the end of the third quarter, the tide had turned as it was Tamil Nadu which now led 46-43. UP had been restricted to just 9 points in the entire period.

With the final 10 minutes to go, it was anybody’s game, as rival point guards Nishanthi of TN and Shivani Gupta of UP traded threes. UP decided to substitute the taller Reena Patel for the smaller Aditi Singh, and that’s when things started to go downhill for the hosts. Despite Aditi’s best efforts, TN center Pushpa was too much to handle for her, as TN started collecting multiple offensive rebounds. This, in turn, led to second chance opportunities as Nishanthi and Amritha knocked down shots from beyond the arc to make it a 9 point game with 40 seconds left. Even for a talented scorer like UP’s Vaishnavi Yadav, that lead turned out to be too much to overturn, as UP fell marginally short in the end.

Finals 2: Punjab boys bt Kerala 100-82
Junior Men’s champs Punjab
In a much-anticipated finale, the two strongest junior men’s teams faced off for the ultimate prize of being crowned national champions. This game featured elite matchups across multiple positions, notably, shooting guard (Punjab’s Kanwar Gurbaz Sandhu vs Amal Raghu), small forward (Mandeep Singh vs Joshua George), power forward (Swapnil Sharma vs Md Shiraj) and center (Principal Singh vs Sejin Mathew.

Kerala captain Md Shiraj started strong, scoring the first 8 points for his team. On the other end Mandeep returned the favor, as Punjab quickly raced to an 18-8 lead. Down in the post, the wiry leader Sejin was making his presence felt against the 6ft 10-inch giant Principal posting a mammoth block that pumped him up and antagonized Principal in equal measure.

While Principal was momentarily taken out at the start of the second quarter, his teammates continued to score with ease, building a 35-20 point lead midway through Q2. With Swapnil having a limited impact against Shiraj, backup forward Vinay Sharma played some valuables minutes scoring 7 points in quick time. Punjab led 42-22 with a little over three minutes remaining before halftime, and Kerala needed to make drastic alterations on the defensive end in order to make this a fighting contest. Sensing just this, Kerala Coach Sandeep made his players switch to a full court press defense which paid immediate dividends. Punjab was rushed into numerous turnovers as Kerala closed out the final few minutes of the second quarter on a 13-0 run to trail 35-42 going into halftime.

But as Q3 began, it was clear that Kerala had lost all its steam, as Punjab regained full control of proceedings. With Kerala’s half court offense stuttering, it was forced to overly rely on the individual hustle and determination of forwarding Joshua George. While Joshua battled hard, his one-man effort did little to contain Mandeep on the other end. Mandeep, along with point guard Gurwinder ran the pick and roll with center Principal Singh, to perfection. The play resulted in either open looks for Gurwinder, driving lanes for Mandeep or else a chance for Principal to score in the paint or from the line.

As the match neared the final buzzer, Punjab just ran away with it, touching 100 points for good measure.

Results from 11th June 2017
Women:Finals

1.Tamil Nadu (S Pushpa 25, M Nishanthi 15, T Darshini 10) bt Uttar Pradesh (Vaishnavi Yadav 41, Shivani Gupta 9) 69-63 (16-20, 10-14, 20-9, 23-20)

Classification for 3rd & 4th Places

1.Kerala (Sreekala R 42) bt Karnataka (Sanjana Ramesh 12, Aishwarya VB 11) 68-52 (10-9, 22-18, 21-18, 15-17)

Men:Finals

1.Punjab (Mandeep Singh 33, Gurwinder Singh 27, Princepal Singh 12) bt Kerala (Md Shiraj 22, Joshua George 20, Amal Reghu 16, Sejin Mathew 14) 100-82 (22-12, 20-23, 29-21, 29-26)

Classification for 3rd & 4th Places

1.Rajasthan (Rajeev Kumar 36, Ashish Trivedi 15, Sumeet Kumar 12) bt Tamil Nadu (Sheldin Rashan 18, Arvind Kumar M 16, Shanmugam M 13) 75-68 (18-18, 11, 24, 20-12, 26-14)