Chhattisgarh girls’ team had a good start in day one of 65th National Junior (U-19 Boys and Girls) Basketball Championship underway at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium, Ernakulam (Kerala).
Chhattisgarh Under-19 girls’ team defeated Tamil Nadu by 85-66 in one of the league matches played on May 26, informed General Secretary Chhattisgarh Basketball Association Rajesh Patel on Monday.
The highest scorer for Chhattisgarh team was team Captain Saranjeet Kaur who alone scored 34 points. The second highest scorer was Sangeeta Kaur who contributed 21 points in team score while Riya Verma added 14 points in the team points tally. Similarly, AA Kavita made 11 points, Filu Maria scored 2 points and Sangeeta Das scored 2 points for Chhattisgarh.
Chhattisgarh boys will clash with Haryana in their first league match of the Championship on Tuesday. The national event is seeing the participation of 24 teams in boys’ group while 23 teams in the girls’ group.
Rajesh Patel informed that, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Punjab are in Pool-A, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Haryana and MP in Pool-B, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir in Pool-C, Delhi, Gujarat and Puducherry in Pool-D, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Uttarakhand in Pool-E and Bihar, Chandigarh and West Bengal in Pool-F.
The championship is a league-cum-knockout. Currently, Chhattisgarh is having the winner cup of last year while Punjab is the reigning Champions in boys’ category.
The Championship carries prize money of Rs1 lakh for the winner, Rs75,000 for the runners-up and Rs50,000 for the first runner-ups. For the first time, the KBA has introduced a FIBA (International Basket Ball Federation) level 1 approved score board imported from Belgium.