Cuttack, Sep 1 (IANS) Defending champions Chhattisgarh girls beat Uttar Pradesh 92-65 on the opening day of the 64th Junior National Basketball Championships here Sunday.
Led by the towering Poonam Chaturvedi, the Chhattisgarh offence was firing. But none could overshadow Poonam’s 44-point performance with many of her baskets coming effortlessly.
In other matches, Karnataka boys and Kerala girls also registered wins.
All the matches are being held at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium and the Barabati Stadium Complex.
Boys results:
Karnataka (Issac Thomas 20, Sowkin Shetty 13) bt Andhra Pradesh (S.S.V.R. Krishna 9, Akhil V. Reddy 9) 80-52 (24-24, 21-7, 19-11, 16-10); Tamil Nadu (S. Karthickayan 28, P. Vijay 17, G. Bethal 13) bt Madhya Pradesh (B.P. Singh 15, B. Akash 14, Saif Ali 10) 75-64 (21-23, 22-16, 20-8, 12-17); Delhi (Pradeep 29, Narendar 26, A. Singh Sohal 25, Pankaj 16) bt Rajasthan (Devendra 22, Navjot 14, Atul Singh 14, Abhimanyu 13, Tushar 13) 114-86 (22-17, 39-13, 24-30, 29-16).
Girls results: Haryana (Prince 24, Suman 24, Savitha 15) bt Delhi (Somya 24, Monika 22, Padmavati 13, Jyoti 11) 82-72 (17-19, 18-17, 16-15, 31-21); Chhattishgarh (Poonam Chaturvedi 44, Sangeeta Kaur 31) bt Uttar Pradesh (Preeti Kumari 20, Niharika Verama 12, Barkha Sonkar 14) 92-65 (QT scores: 24-15, 23-15, 19-19, 26-16); Kerala (Poojamil K.S. 21, Garima Merlin 20) bt Punjab (Nirmal Kaur 29, Kulwinder Kaur 12) 62-50 (QT scores: 12-9, 18-14, 13-16, 19-11); Karnataka (Supriya M.S. 16, Sharika D.V. 8) bt Gujarat (Tulika Bisht 8) 67-13 (QT scores: 28-6, 14-2, 13-0, 12-5); Chandigarh (Kirti 12, Akshita 12) bt Pondicherry (N. Suganya 6) 37-8 (QT scores: 15-4, 6-2, 10-2, 6-0); Jharkhand (Mridula Barla 8, Jidew Barla 5) bt Bihar (Anushka Rai 4) 22-6 (QT scores: 1-4, 10-0, 5-2, 6-0); Assam (Kiran 12, Binita 6) bt Andhra Pradesh (Mrunalini Reddy 6, S. Nikitha 5) 30-21 (QT scores: 14-4, 6-2, 3-9, 7-6); West Bengal (Paulami Chatterjee 8, Swagata Dey 8) bt Uttrakhand (Vedika Tibrewala 3) 32-5 (QT scores: 14-0, 6-1, 2-2, 10-2).
