Surat, Jan 29: Tamil Nadu boys and Madhya Pradesh girls won the Orissa Chief Minister's Cup and the S K Shamanna Shanbhag Memorial trophy respectively by emerging champions in the 15th National Youth Basketball tournament here today.In the boys final, Tamil Nadu clinched a thriller against Punjab 58-57. In the girls title clash between Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, the issue was again settled by one point, 52-51.
Maharashtra led their rivals 30-25 halfway into the second half, but once Madhya Pradesh tightly marked tall Anita Krishnan, Maharashtra's scoring declined.
At this point, Madhya Pradesh scored 17 baskets on a trot with the bulk of them coming from Poonam. In the last few minutes of play, Maharashtra made an attempt to fight back through Simmi Subramaniam and Gayatri Manolikar, but at the end lost by one point. Tamil Nadu led throughout the first half with Arvind feeding Rajvel and Sunder time and again to score. Punjab fought back in the second half and took a seven-point lead at onestage.
But Rajavel converted two field baskets and Sunder added a jumper to level score at 57. Punjab players missed several chances including a sitter by Jasjit in the dying seconds.
Tamil Nadu's victory was ensured by Hari Prakash, who converted his second free throw with less than a minute left.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.