Quarter-finalists spotted in Sub-Jr National Basketball

Kapurthala, Jun 19 (UNI) Quarter-finalists have been spotted both in the boys and girls sections of the 35th Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship being held at Saini School courts here.

The boys quarter-final line-up is: Punjab vs Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu vs Chattisgarh, Delhi vs Rajasthan and Jharkhand vs Uttar Pradesh.

In girls section, holders Chattisgarh will be challenged by West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh will meet Jharkhand, UP will meet Maharashtra and Karnataka will play Tamil Nadu.

Late last night, in the pre-quarter finals match hosts went down fighting to formidable Maharashtra by 45-54 points. The Maharashtra girls took an early lead of 10 points at the end of first quarter (21-11) which was the main reason for Punjab's defeat. The Punjab girls could not stop lanky Maharashtrian Shireen Leema, who contributed 12 valuable points to her team.

In the second quarter, the Punjab girls put up a splendid performance and scored 16 points against Maharashtra (10). At the conclusion of second quarter Maharashtra were leading by only four points (31-27). In the third quarter Maharashtra consolidated the lead and finally won the match by 54-45 points.

For Maharashtra, Shireen Leema (12), Kiritika (12), Shawta (9) and Mayura Bhat (9) were the main scorers. Savita, Harpreet and Manpreet (10 each) were the main scorers for Punjab.

In the boys pre-quarter finals match, Maharashtra boys having trailed by one (21-22) at the end of second quarter, resurged in the third quarter and took a lead of six points (35-29) by scoring 14 points against 7 points of Karnataka. Thereafter Maharashtra maintaining same tempo, finally won the match by 52-34 points.

For Maharashtra Ibrahim (12), Naveen (22), Uday (6) and Saleem (6) were the main points getters. Nikar Kumar (10), Alok (6), Nikhil (4) and Jeetender (8) reduced the margin for Karnataka.

Results: Boys (Pre-quarter finals): Maharashtra bt Karnataka 52-37, UP bt Kerala 72-35, Chattisgarh bt Manipur 54-22, Delhi bt J &K 36-9.

Girls (Pre-quarter finals): Tamil Nadu bt Gujarat 32-14, West Bengal bt Haryana 51-29, Jharkhand bt Delhi 38-9, Maharashtra bt Punjab 54-45.

Classification round for 9th to 12th place: Kerala bt J &K 30-3; Manipur bt Karnataka 65-41, Punjab bt Gujarat 42-9, Haryana bt Delhi 46-18.

UNI XC PS RAR ND1658