After fighting hard for a majority of the game, the Kerala boys slipped in the dying minutes to go down 59-55 to defending champion Rajasthan in Group-A of the 36th Youth National basketball championship at the PSG Tech Indoor Stadium courts here on Friday.
The Rajasthan boys did exactly what their girls did the other day — standing tall till the end. They did not allow the opposition to take a big lead, stayed close right through and attacked with a flurry of baskets in the final quarter to pull off an exciting win.
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The game was very much in Kerala’s hand but it lost the plot as it cut down on its pace in the last 10 minutes. It also switched over from man-to-man to zone defence which proved costly.
Rajasthan made the best use of the situation and exerted maximum pressure with some speedy drives and delightful shots.
Rajasthan coach Harjinder Singh said it was the toughest of the three games they had played so far. “Kerala played brilliantly but our defence stood the test well. Jitendra Kumar and Lokendra Singh did a great job for us.”
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In the girls’ section, it was yet another commanding show by Tamil Nadu as it coasted to a comfortable 86-68 over Uttar Pradesh.
The results:
Boys: Haryana 83 (Deepender 24, Arshay Dalal 19, Rahul 10) bt Maharashtra 55 (Nehai Saikh 22, Rajender Singh 13); Rajasthan 59 (Nitesh 15, Jitendra 12) bt Kerala 55 (Pranav 20, Abhinav 12); Telangana 90 (Karthik Chadha 18, Gowtham Viga 15, Khaja Vali 15) bt Himachal (Ramdeep 19); Gujarat 72 (Patel 25, Jack 21, Lavtuka 15) bt Jharkhand 66 (Bag 21, M.R. Kumar 11, Yadav 10).
Girls: Gujarat 66 (Lakhan Pal, Rajvi Desai 12) bt Assam 25 (Sinjini 10, Dharitri 10); Maharashtra 76 (Shomere 23, Asmat 17) bt Madhya Pradesh 40 (Stuti 15, Divya 10); Telangana 61 (Sidhika 18, Harshitha 14) bt Himachal 56 (Kumari 21, Aashrita 14); Tamil Nadu 86 bt Uttar Pradesh 68.