Punjab boys, Kerala girls suffer defeats

Defending champions Punjab boys and Kerala girls lost their opening matches in the National junior basketball championships at the Basketball Complex Race Course Road here on Tuesday.

Delhi boys stunned Punjab 78-56 in a Group A encounter. In the same group, Tamil Nadu boys staged a remarkable rally to beat Maharashtra 67-60 after trailing 23-33 at half-time.

Punjab whipped Kerala 80-44 in a girls’ Group A match. Tamil Nadu girls got off to a winning start with a crushing 86-12 win over Gujarat.

The results: Boys: Group A: Delhi 78 (Himanshu 40, Sishanth Dhadda 18) bt Punjab 56 (Rahul 20, Nawal Singh 17); Tamil Nadu 67 (A. Ajay 21, Hartharasudan 14, Vijayakumar 10) bt Maharashtra 60 (Yash Mane 15, Rajendra Singh 11).

Group B: Uttar Pradesh 80 (Kushal Singh 24, Rishab Jaiswar 15) bt Karnataka 73 (R.M. Manoj 30, Joshua S. Sajith 18); Group D: Telangana 74 (Jasim 20) bt Goa 32.

Girls: Group A: Punjab 80 (Kavya Singla 25, Kanishra Dhir 20) bt Kerala 44 (Aleena Antony 18); Group B: Tamil Nadu 86 (R.Sathya 21, Angel 12) bt Gujarat 12; Group C: Delhi 81 (Abhiya 15, Krithika 12, Sneha 11) bt Goa 6.

Group D: Telangana 64 (Yeswini 18, Bhuvaneswari 13) bt Himachal Pradesh 57 (Poonam Thakur 21, Palak Kumari 10); Karnataka 94 (Mannali Jacob 18, Pavani Sangvan 12, Aiswarya 12) bt Bihar 18.

Group E: Jammu & Kashmir 74 (Chitreshi Gupta 28, Shakshi Sharma 21) bt Puducherry 22; West Bengal 65 (Ananaya Mondal 16, Smriti Kana 15) bt Assam 47 (Jiya 13).

Group F: Odisha 58 (Lizalin Jena 22, Swagatika Saho 12) bt Andhra Pradesh 42 (Aiswarya Devi 12, Venkatalakshmi 10) .