Punjab boys pip MP in national basketball

Pondicherry, May 23 (IANS) On a day of mostly one-sided matches, Punjab struggled to beat Madhya Pradesh 56-53 in the boys league of the 63rd National basketball championship for juniors here Wednesday.

After trailing 24-38 at half-time, Madhya Pradesh turned in a fighting performance in the second session, but ran out of time as Punjab grimly hung on to their fast depleting lead to emerge victors.

The results (preliminary league):

Boys - Chandigarh 47 (Navjot Singh 16, Rajat Cheema 11, Naveen 10) bt Himachal Pradesh 37 (Shahil Balu 17, Shahbukh 10). Haryana 91 (Himanshu 32, Rajesh 20, Vinay 16) bt West Bengal 70 (D Shaw 25, S Joshi 17, P Barou 10). Delhi 80 (Narender 23, Nikhil 16, Rakesh 15) bt Tamil Nadu 65 (S Karthikeyan 24, B Arun Prasanth 13, U Kumaran 11). Punjab 56 (Gurvinder Singh Gill 16, Kushmeet Singh 12) bt Madhya Pradesh 53 (Jeetandra Patidar 12). Karnataka 74 (Hrishikesh 19) bt Odisha 50.

Girls - Uttarakhand 31 (Devanshi Singh 9, Sonika Rana 8) bt Gujarat 16 (Vedika H Vyas 9). Chhattishgarh 87 (Poonam Chaturvedi 41, Saranjeet Kaur 19, Anjana Daisy Ekka 14) bt Madhya Pradesh 36 (Amishi 14, Aayushi 10).