69th Junior National Basketball Championship: Punjab men and women dominate on day one

Hosts Punjab began their campaign in the boys and girls section with wins on the opening day of the 69th National Basketball Championships which got underway at the Ludhiana Basketball Academy, Guru Nanak Stadium, Ludhiana, yesterday. Tamil Nadu girls and Punjab boys teams are the defending champions from the previous version of the event. Punjab boys in their Group 'A' fixture beat UP 107-49, while Tamil Nadu got the better of Chandigarh 91-69. Karnataka boys scored a 68-55 win over Andhra Pradesh and began their campaign with a win. Karnataka girls also began their campaign with a win by registering a 42-35 triumph over Madhya Pradesh. Results Boys Group A: TN (Santhosh 17 pts, Arvind 15 pts, Surya 15 pts) bt Chandigarh (Rahul 27 pts, Kawaljit 12 pts) 91-69 ; Punjab (Princepal 32pts) bt UP (Priyanshu 14pts) 107-49. Group B: Kerala (Shanazil 25 pts, Chacko 22 pts, Sejin 18 pts) bt MP(Udayveer 34 pts, Aman 17 pts) 103-86 ; Rajasthan (Rajeev 34 pts, Sumeet 12 pts) bt Delhi (Aditya 23 pts, Nitish 24 pts) 89-88 . Group C: Telangana (Vigneshwar 29 pts, Dinesh 20 pts) bt Puducherry (Sathyavanan 32 pts, Sai surga 10 pts) 94-58 . Group D: Uttarakhand (Riyanshu 22 pts) bt Odisha (Sarat 21 pts) 86-50 . Group E: Assam (Sanjyapal 18 pts) bt Jharkhand (Sumit 19 pts) 53-51 ; Chhattisgarh (Salim 36 pts, Rishabh 15 pts) bt Bihar (Raunak 14 pts, Dharmendra 12 pts) 74-52 ; Gujarat (Dvij 14 pts) bt Nagaland (kevin 10 pts) 64-24 . Group F: Mizoram (Zonun Sanga 19 pts, Ronald 25 pts) bt WB (Pranay 25 pts) 67-60 ; Karnataka (Pratyanshu 28 pts) bt AP (Manikanta 12 pts) 68-55 . WOMEN Group A: Karnataka (Sanjana 20 pts) bt MP (Asmat 12 pts) 42-35 ; TN (Dharshini 16 pts, Avani 16 pts) bt Gujarat (Tavleen 16 pts) 71-46 . Group B: UP (Vaishnavi 57 pts, Harshita 19 pts) bt Maharashtra (Suzanne 17 pts, Neha 13 pts) 91-83 ; Punjab (Sakshi 17 pts, Priyanka 13 pts) bt Rajasthan (Ishika 27 pts) 74-56 . Group C: Delhi (Manisha 10 pts) bt Goa (S. Nathan 08 pts) 36-16 Group D: Haryana (Heenu 16 pts, Rishy 11 pts) bt Bihar 49-10 . Group E: Chandigarh (Gunisha 06 pts, Simran 04 pts ) bt Assam 27-05 . Group F: Odisha (Pragati 18 pts, Lipramayee 18 pts) bt AP (Prameela 8 pts) 57-41 ; Telangana (Arya 16 pts, Sudheshna 12 pts) bt Uttarakhand (Saloni 06 pts) 62-24.