Coimbatore : Girls from Kerala triumphed in the 36th Youth National Basketball Championship here at the PSG Tech Indoor sports complex on Tuesday by defeating Tamil Nadu team by 80-75.
Coimbatore : Girls from Kerala triumphed in the 36th Youth National Basketball Championship here at the PSG Tech Indoor sports complex on Tuesday by defeating Tamil Nadu team by 80-75.
The girls from Kerala team played aggressively and clinched a thrilling victory over Tamil Nadu after six years.
"High/low strategy worked well for the champions as they had tall players in the team. After analysing the strength and weakness of Tamil Nadu team, we meticulously planned a strategy which helped us defeat them", said V.M. Prem Kumar, Kerala coach.
Tamil Nadu girls team's successful journey in the tournament ended with a disappointing defeat over Kerala. Though Tamil Nadu girls gave a tough fight, the defensive game from Kerala contained Tamil Nadu from scoring points.
Also, too many fouls in the later part of the game turned the game in favour of Kerala. Tamil Nadu's 32 fouls in the final clash was also a reason for their defeat. From the beginning, the game was in the hands of Kerala from the start. At the end of the first quarter, Kerala lead the attack with 6 points.
As the game progressed, Kerala kept calling for points and with the terrifying form from the key player Ann Mary Zachari who fulfilled the team's dream of a trophy after six years.
Ann Mary Zachari scored half the total points of Kerala in the final and emerged as an important and promising asset for her team.
Though Tamil Nadu gave a fight in the final quarter of the game where they pulled the game back live (62-64) but failed to carry the momentum to the final minutes of the game. In a major twist, the last few minutes went in favour of Kerala.
"Tamil Nadu girls exhibited power and great skill through the tournament. However, the Kerala girls outplayed us. We had different strategies for different opponents but the height of the players from Kerala played an important role in the game. Our girls struggled to beat the tall girls from Kerala team. Otherwise, we had a great tournament here", opined Ragu Kumar, Tamil Nadu coach.
Match : Kerala (80) beat Tamil Nadu (75)
Top Scorers: Ann Mary Zachari (40), Ashlin Shiju (11) TamilNadu Sathya (31), Sandhya (10).
In boys category Haryana defeated Kerala in the final clash to lift the 36th youth nationals basketball Championship. In an equally poised match, both Kerala and Haryana vied for the trophy.
The match was unpredictable till the fourth of the fianls, Haryana's acceleration in the finals 10 minutes of the game helped them to succeed.
Match: Haryana (81) defeat Kerala (74).
Top scorers: Haryana.- Sahil (39), Akshay (17) Kerala: Pranab Prince (19), Jim Paul Kothuul (19).
Ann Mary Zachari was selected as best player of the tournament in girls category and Sahil of Haryana was selected as best player in the boys category. Special award (Promising player) was presented to Sathya (Tamil Nadu).
Govindaraj, President, Basketball Federation of India was the chief guest to the valedictory function, he gave away the trophies and cash awards to the winners of the tournament.
Cash prize of Rs.1.5 lakhs were presented to the winners, 1 lakh and Rs. 50,000 were presented to the first and second runner up of the tournament.
Cash award of Rs. 25,000 was presented to the best players of the tournament.