Apoorva, with 16 baskets to his credit, played a responsible all-round game to lift Pune to a 10 points victory. The Pune captain was ably supported by Omkar Nadkarni, both of whom combined well in the offense and used the height advantage to beat their opponents in rebounds.

Meanwhile, Chandrapur cagers shocked Mumbai South-East 35-30 in a close contest in the Group `F' league to keep their hopes alive of entering the knock-out phase. The one man army of ChandrapurMahesh Parkhi scored 23 points for the winners.

In another match Sangli beat Yevatmal 54-37 in the same group. Another interesting encounter of the day was witnessed between Satara and Aurangabad. In a keenly contested Group `E' match, Satara overcame the Aurangabad challenge winning it 29-23. Down 11-14 at the half-time, Satara changed their strategy of the game opting for man-to-man defence and soon were on equal terms, thanks to Aniruddha Deshmukh, who netted 13 baskets. Aurangabad hoopsters had a tough time in breaking in stopping the Satara attack.

In Group B section, Ahmednagar trounced Akola 32-15, with Vikas Godge (12) and Vinay Bagi (14) being the scorers. Hosts Solapur, down by 21-24 in the half-time lost to Mumbai North by 32-36 in Group `D'. The hosts had another blow when their team in the distaff section could score only five points against Central Mumbai's 50, loosing it by 45 points, in the Group A.

While, Nagpur and Thane eves qualified for the knock-out stage from Group `B', while Ahmednagar loosing both their matches are noe out of the championship.

Thane, who also enjoyed a similar win to that of Central Mumbai against Ahmednagar, with a 41-6 score in the end. While, Satara defeated Bandhara 42-23 in Group C.

Boys
Group `A': Pune: 43 (Apoorva Sontakke 16) bt Mumbai South-West: 33 (Hussain Shaikh 8). H/T: 32-14.
Group `B': Ahmednagar: 32 (Vikas Godge 12, Vinay Bagi 14) bt Akola: 15. H/T: 16-9.
Group `D': Mumbai North: 36 (Sameer G 12, V Sunil 15) bt Solapur: 32 (Daniel Kamble 9). H/T: 24-21.
Group `E': Satara: 29 (Aniruddha Deshmukh 13) bt Aurangabad: 23 (V Rane 6). H/T: 11-14.
Group `F': Chandrapur: 35 (Mahesh Parkhi 23) bt Mumbai South-East: 30 (Farhan Khan 8). H/T: 12-03.
Sangli: 54 (Anil Sankpal 14, Mahesh Nagne 9) bt Yavatmal: 37 (Parag Pophali 16). H/T: 26-11.
Girls
Group `A': Mumbai Central: 50 (R Balkrishnan 8, Shweta R 8) bt Solapur: 5. H/T: 31-03.
Group `B': Thane: 41 (Prachi Gole 8, Rucha Marathe 8) bt Ahmednagar: 6. H/T: 30-0.
Group `C': Satara: 42 (Suchitra Deshmukh 12, Pallavi Gujar 8) bt Bhandara: 23 (Bharti Kulwant-6). H/T: 24-10.