Pune boys, Thane girls scrape into inter-district basketball finals

Mumbai, May 17 (UNI) Pune boys and Thane girls registered pulsating wins to storm into the finals of the 59th Junior Maharashtra State Inter District Basketball Championship, organised by the Greater Mumbai Central District Basketball Association, at the Naigaum Police ground here today.

Pune, who led 43-33 at half time, endured a strong challenge in the third and fourth quarters before overcoming a gallant Nagpur 76-68 in an exciting semi-final.

Pune were powered by Siddhanth Shinde, who top scored with 26 points, Akshay Bhosale (17) and Ajinkya Mehta (12).

In the final, Pune will meet defending champions Mumbai South East who, in contrast, crushed Mumbai Central 78-48, after leading by a narrow 32-28 margin at half time.

Trailing 18-19 at half time, girls defending champions Thane escaped to a nail-biting 45-44 win over Nagpur to advance to the championship round.

Amruta Buskute and Madhura Potdar steered the winners with impressive performances, as Buskute was rewarded with 17 points and Potdar scored 10.

In the final, Thane will meet last year's runners-up Pune, who routed Mumbai Central 56-7 in the other semi-final.

Results: Boys: SF: Mumbai South East 78 (Nasir Quereshi 20, Shamsher Makrani 17, Zoheb Khan 13, Iftekar Quereshi 12) bt Mumbai Central 48 (Mukund Meshram 10, Raj Kalbhor 8). HT: 32-28. Pune 76 (Siddhanth Shinde 26, Akshay Bhosale 17, Ajinkya Mehta 12) bt Nagpur 68 (Nakul Ghate 19, Sumit Khandhare 18). HT: 43-33.

QF: Mumbai South East 75 (Shamsher Makrani 20, Zoheb Khan 10) bt Aurangabad 34 (Sachin Pardesi 13). HT: 43-18. Nagpur 68 (Manish Patil 18, Nakul Ghate 14) bt Thane 61 (Rohan Borkar 14, Nikhil Kanchan 14).

HT: 30-25.

Girls: SF: Thane 45 (Amruta Buskute 17, Madhura Potdar 10) bt Nagpur 44 (Khushali Jethwa 18, Disha Wadpaliwar 10). HT: 18-19. Pune 56 (Nikita Kapoor 14, Tanvi Shewale 12) bt Mumbai Central 7.

3rd place play-off: Nagpur 49 (Khushali Jethwa 11, Disha Wadpaliwar 5) bt Mumbai Central 4. HT: 25-4.

UNI GS RN RKM KN2046