UP, Haryana boys, Karnataka and UP girls reach semi-finals

The 51st Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship entered the semi-final stage with intense action in the knockout rounds at the Maris Stella Indoor Stadium in Vijayawada on Friday. The quarter-finals in the boys’ and girls’ sections produced closely fought contests as teams battled for places in the last four.

The tournament is being conducted by the Andhra Pradesh Basketball Association and NTR District Basketball Association, with the support of the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP), under the aegis of the Basketball Federation of India (BFI), and will conclude on October 4.

In the boys’ quarter-finals, Uttar Pradesh put up a strong performance to defeat Karnataka 65-40. Shabd Kumar led the Uttar Pradesh scoring with 21 points, while Sameer Singh contributed 19. Taksha Jha scored 13 points for Karnataka. Haryana registered a narrow 70-65 victory over Delhi in another exciting quarter-final. Keshav Kaushik top-scored for Haryana with 17 points, followed by Haesh Rathee with 15, Nikhil with 14 and Deb Rathee with 11. Delhi’s Jishan Malik scored 17 points, while Vineet, Karthik and Arnab Sharma contributed 11, 10 and 10 points respectively. In the girls’ quarter-finals, Karnataka defeated Kerala 62-49. Aarushi Anand led Karnataka with 17 points, while Dhanya Shree Anand added 12. Kerala’s Anna Elsa George was the top scorer of the match with 21 points, while Ananya Aneesh contributed 10.

Uttar Pradesh secured a 68-57 win over Madhya Pradesh to enter the semi-finals. Tejasvi Karhana was the star performer for Uttar Pradesh with 21 points, while Angel Malik scored 15. Monika Dhakad and Eram Khan scored 13 and 11 points respectively for Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier, the pre-quarter-finals set the stage for the intense knockout action. In the boys’ section, Madhya Pradesh defeated Kerala 71-51, with Sumit Gujar scoring 16 points, followed by Anil Khanchi with 14, while Pranjai Sharma and Aksh Choudhary contributed 11 each. Sameer scored 10 points. Harinand P Nair was Kerala’s top scorer with 12 points. Chhattisgarh registered a commanding 74-14 victory over Punjab. Shivam Yadav led the scoring with 18 points, while Namo Narayan Malala added 16. In the girls’ pre-quarter-finals, West Bengal edged past Odisha 57-51 in a competitive encounter. Ekta Mahato scored 16 points and Bulbuli Hembram 11 for West Bengal, while Iingyasha Jayasree scored 12 for Odisha. Delhi recorded a convincing 75-41 win over Punjab. Chhavi Singh led Delhi’s scoring with 22 points and Nyra Khosla added 16. Amreen Dhindsa scored 16 and Samreen Kaur 11 for Punjab.

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