Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, defending champions in the boys' and girls' sections respectively, had easy outings on Thursday in the league fixtures of the 27th youth National basketball championship here.
In a boys' Group ‘A' encounter, Madhya Pradesh downed Maharashtra 45-30. The former raced to a 11-0 lead at the end of the first quarter, but Maharashtra reduced the deficit considerably at the halfway mark.
Madhya Pradesh stepped up the pace in the next two sessions to seal the match.
In a girls Group ‘A' match, Tamil Nadu scripted a 63-19 win over Delhi. Tamil Nadu maintained complete control of the match from the start and won with a difference of 44 points.
The results (league): Boys: Level I: Group A: Madhya Pradesh 45 (Laxam 14) bt Maharashtra 30 (Ibrahim 13); Delhi 69 (Joginder 20) bt Uttar Pradesh 61(Abishek Singh 27); Group B: Chhattisgarh 51 (B. Dinesh 15, K.R. Dinesh 13) bt Andhra Pradesh 44 (V. Nair 15); Punjab 71 (Harman 18, Gaurav 10) bt Jharkhand 8; Rajasthan 63 (Pradeep Shankar 24) bt Jharkhand 38.
Level II: Group D: Himachal Pradesh 54 (Sharukh 20) bt Puducherry 20; Group E: Tamil Nadu 77 bt Chandigarh 24; Group F: West Bengal 41 (Siddanth 19) bt Gujarat 18.
Girls: Level I: Group A: Tamil Nadu 63 (Ramya 13, Hema 10) bt Delhi 19; Kerala 45 (Jeena 14) bt Delhi 12; Group B: Karnataka 36 (Priyanka 12, Navaneetha 10) bt Chhattisgarh 28 (Anjana 10); Maharashtra 39 bt Rajasthan 5.
Level II: Group C: Jharkhand 30 bt Jammu and Kashmir 2; Group D: Madhya Pradesh 39 bt Himachal Pradesh 6; Group F: Uttarakhand 32 bt Goa 9; Gujarat 27 bt Goa 11.
