Punjab, Chattisgarh, UP and Delhi in Semis

Kapurthala, Jun 19 (UNI) Holders Punjab, last years runners-up Chattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi entered the boys semifinals of the 35th Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship at the Sainik School floodlit courts here tonight.

In the quarterfinals matches Punjab beat Maharashtra 68-31 and Delhi proved too good for Rajasthan whom they routed by 53-22 points.

In other quarterfinals encounters, UP beat Jharkhand 60-36 points and Chattisgarh got the better of Tamil Nadu by 53-23 points.

Earlier, defending champions Chattisgarh girls became the first team to enter the semi- finals.

In the one-sided quarter final match played in the evening today Chattisgarh defeated West Bengal by 74-15 points. The West Bengal girls were no match for Chattisgarh. The quarter-wise scores were 35-1, 45-1, 63-13 and 74-15. For Chattisgarh, Saranjeet 21, Sangeeta 19, Kavita 14, Sangeeta Das 8 and Sneha 6 were the main scorers. S Roy 6, M Kumari 4 and M Sardar 3 put up some resemblance of fight for West Bengal.

In another quarterfinals Jharkhand girls beat Andhra Pradesh 51-29.

In the first quarter both the teams were evenly matched (12 points each). In the second quarter Jharkhand took a lead of 11 points 18-7 and in the third quarter AP girls scored 2 points more than Jharkhand 13-11. In the last quarter Jharkhand girls scored 10 points against AP's 6. For Jharkhand, Balhi 13, Diksha 9, Barkha 8, Aditi 5, Akansha 4 and for AP Lakshmi 10, Divya 6, Jyothi 4, Chodhary 4 were the main scorers.

In the third quarter-finals, UP girls defeated Maharashtra by 49-37.Quarterwise scores were 14-13, 31-17, 35-25 and 49-37. In the fourth quarterfinals Tamil Nadu beat Karnataka by 47-20 and reached the semifinals.

In the boys section, quarterfinal match, Chattisgarh defeated Tamil Nadu in a one- sided match 53-23 points and qualified for the semi finals. They will play the winners of the quarter finals between Punjab and Maharashtra.

(EDS: pl pick up from earlier series) UNI XC MA VN2148