Youth Nationals Basketball Championship: MP make a comeback

INDORE: A day after the home team got off to a false start, Madhya Pradesh girls trooped out a confident lot on a bright Sunday afternoon while Maharashtra boys continued with their sloppy show here at the Emerald Heights International School courts in Indore.
There was plenty to cheer for the goodly crowd as the local outfit, after taking over five minutes to open their account, managed to double the scores in the 10th minute and displayed the skills fitting to their confidence to post a brilliant come-from-behind 67-53 victory over Uttar Pradesh on Day 2 of the 29th Youth Nationals Basketball Championship.
While Madhya Pradesh girls made a comeback, Maharashtra boys flattered only to deceive against Tamil Nadu allowing the later to stage a late rally for a thumping 85-62 win.
Expecting the best from his girls in their second game a day after they failed to impress against holders Kerala, secretary of Madhya Pradesh Basketball Association Kulvinder Singh Gill said they want to earn the respect of their rivals.
"I hope that the girls can improve from here with each game. We went into the match with lot of confidence and our fighting win over the tall and well built UP players reflects just that.
Now, we are looking to earn the respect of our opponents," Gill told TOI.
Playing as a power guard, Pooja Laddha led MP’s challenge with a game-high score of 25 points and pulled down a dozen rebounds for her first double-double in the tourney.
For the second day in succession Maharashtra boys produced a dismal performance.
Maharashtra may have been guilty of employing a wrong strategy vis-a-vis their man-to-man marking and substitutions as they blew off an initial 15-minute flurry to go down in the last 10 minutes of the match.
For starters, Maharashtra were seemingly in control as they took the first quarter 23-11. However, Tamil Nadu regrouped almost immediately to wrest the second 21-16 and bring down the lead to 7 points at the break.
After the change of ends, Tamil Nadu further brought down the lead by winning the third period 18-14. With three fast breaks and a couple of three-pointers at the start of last quarter Tamil Nadu turned the match on its head.
Once the momentum shifted towards Tamil Nadu they played with controlled aggression in the final quarter cruising to a decisive 35-9 win which eventually tilted the result in their favour.
The architects of Tamil Nadu’s victory include Muin Bek (18), Jedidiah Gabriel (17) and Nikhil Pandian (17). For Maharashtra, Imran Saddique (21) and Vaishak Nambiar (16) did well.
Earlier in an interesting clash, holders Delhi – having secured their first gold medal in the previous edition of the U-16 meet in Nagpur in 2011 – displayed good speed and shooting precision to register a late rally for a fine 7-point (73-64) victory over Haryana.
Controlling the play, junior India hoopster Narender Singh top scored for the defending champions along with power forward Gaurav Ohlan. Both the Delhi stars netted identical 23 points. For Haryana, Rahul Sharma (21) and Himanshi Mishra (16) played well.
RESULTS
Girls: Madhya Pradesh (Pooja Laddha 25, Bharti Gurjar 16, Ayushi Vashishtha 13) bt Uttar Pradesh (Sakshi Sharma 19, Aditi Dwivedi 14) 67-53 (15-13, 21-10, 15-14, 16-16); Chhattisgarh (Riya Verma 20, P Divya 13, Rashmi Wankhede 11) bt West Bengal (Madhumita Parmanik 12, Palumi Chattarjee 11) 78-26 (17-6, 21-7, 16-4, 24-9); Punjab (Samiriti 20, Kulwinder Kaur 12) bt Haryana (Anju Devi 17, Riya 8) 46-31 (14-7, 15-9, 9-7, 8-8); Tamil Nadu (K Devirajalakshmi 13, P Mathuravaani 11, J Abila 9) bt Karnataka (Supriya M.S 11, Yashwini CP 8) 46-35 (15-8, 8-9, 7-6, 16-12); Delhi (Soumya Babbar 13, Jyoti Rai 12) bt Himachal Pradesh (Munisha 20, Meenakshi 6) 48-36 (5-9, 12-14, 19-10, 12-3).
Boys: Tamil Nadu (Muin Bek 18, Jedidiah Gabriel 17, Nikhil Pandian 17) bt Maharashtra (Imran Saddique 21, Vaishak Nambiar 16) 85-62 (11-23, 21-16, 18-14, 35-9); Andhra Pradesh (Prudhvishwar Reddy 34, David Boon 23) bt Chhattisgarh (Saif Hashmi 16, Tarendra Kumar Yadav 13) 78-58 (20-19, 23-6, 17-16, 19-16); Uttar Pradesh (Ravi Kichor 27, Abhishek Kumar 15) bt Haryana (Himanshu 21) 78-66 (10-13, 19-24, 20-15, 19-14); Chandigarh (Naveen 22, Jugraj 19) bt West Bengal (Sagar Joshi 17, Arka Saha 11) 60-56 (21-20, 15-18, 14-8, 10-10); Delhi (Narender Singh 23, Gaurav Ohlan 23) bt Haryana (Rahul Sharma 16) 73-64 (15-20, 22-10, 15-15, 21-19).