Haryana boys and Kerala girls win gold at Basketball Youth Nationals

The 36th Youth (U16) National Baketball Championship for boys and girls culminated in Coimbatore on Tuesday with Haryana (boys) and Kerala (girls) clinching the gold medal. The tournament was co-organized by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and the Tamil Nadu Basketball Association (TNBA) at the PSG College of Technology. The competition—India's biggest under-16 basketball tournament— took place between May 14 and 21. As reported by Hoopistani, a total of 26 teams, each in the boys' and the girls' division took place from different parts of the country. Both the boys' and the girls' team of Kerala managed to reach the finals. The girls team, which managed its first top spot finish in four years, locked horns against the host, Tamil Nadu. Kerala defeated TN 80-69, courtesy their enigmatic captain, Ann Mary Zachariah, leading from the front with 40 points. On the other hand, Kerala boys failed to get over the line. They faced Haryana in the finals and lost 74-81 in a closely fought battle. Sahil Taya, Haryana's stat played carried his impressive run throughout the tournament into the finals by scoring 31 points. Akshay played second fiddle, scoring 17 in Haryana's title victory. While Sahil was adjudged the player of the tournament for boys, Ann Mary Zachariah was name the player of the tournament for girls. In the third place play-offs, Rajasthan bagged twin bronze. The boys, led by Digvijay Singh (36) and Amendra (23), thumped Karnataka 92-68. Unfortunately for Karnataka, their high scores Achintya (38 points) and Manoj (18 points) ended on the losing side. The girls edged past Punjab 48-47 in a nail-biter. Manvi Shrivastava was the star player for Rajasthan with 18 points. Harsimran Kaur, the Punjabi player who turned a lot of heads after her performances at the NBA Academy Women's camp earlier this year, had 29 her side.