Holders Chhattisgarh enter boys and girls semi-finals

Jaipur, Jan 13: Holders Chhattisgarh recorded facile victories over their rivals and entered the semi-finals in both boys and girls sections in the 23rd Youth National Basketball Championship at the SMS Indoor hall here today.

Kerala stormed into girls semi-final as they edged out Tamil Nadu 48-46 in a closely contested quarter-final. Kerala had established a strong 22-10 strong lead at the lemon break but they had to struggle hard before getting past their opponent in the later half.

Fine performance by Pratham Singh and Karampal helped Chhattisgarh prevail over Haryana by 78-67 in the boys quarter-finals after leading by 36-26 at the interval while Chhattisgarh girls whipped Punjab 87-60 in the girls quarter-final.

They led 45-32 at the half time.

In an another pre-quarter final tie in the boys section Madhya Pradesh trounced Kerala by 72-59 after leading by 35-30 at the breather. The winners will now take on the host Rajasthan in the quarter-final.

Chhattisgarh boys combined well right from the word go and naver allowed their rivals to pose any threat to them at any stage of the match. Pratham Singh was their hero as he earned applauds with his fine shooting ability. He was ably supported by Karampal as he too performed well. The former accounted 27 points while Karampal finished with 24 followed by Ajay Pratap with 12. Brijendra top scored 30 points for Haryana while Vinay made 17.

Shosman was the star performer for Chhattisgarh against Punjab as she top scored 29 points followed by Aruna Kindo with 18 and Deepa with 17. Sukamjinder and Rubal made 12 and 11 points respectively for Punjab.

Stephy played a key role in Kerala's victory over Tamilnadu scoring 20 points along with Lizomal P with 13 in the girls section while Sangeetha 15 and Sirisanthshimini 10 were the main contributers for Tamilnadu.

The pre-quarterfinal tie saw Praful and Nitin stealing the limelight for Madhya Pradesh against Kerala. Each of them scored 21 points while Basil Philip and Asheem made 18 and 12 points respectively for Kerala.

The remaining quarter-finals in both the sections are slatted late in the evening today.

Following are the results:- Boys quarter-finals-Chhattisgarh 78 (Pratham Singh 27, Karampal 24, Ajay Pratap 12) bt Haryana 67 (Brijendra 30, Vinay 17) Boys pre-quarter-final-Madhya 72 (praful 21, Nitin 21) bt Kerala 59 (Basil Philip 18, Asheem 12, Sanju Ajoy 8).

Girls quarter-finals-Chhattisgarh 87 (Shosman 29, Aruna Kindo 18, Deepa 17) bt Punjab 60 (Sukamjinder 12, Rubal 11).

Kerala 48 (Stephy 20, Lizomal 13, Shija 11) bt Tamilnadu 46 (Sangeetha 15, Sirisantoshimini 10).

UNI