*J&K men to face Assam in Kalinga Trophy QFs today
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 28: After a brilliant outing against formidable Chandigarh and minnows Puducherry, the Jammu and Kashmir men team lost to Karnataka in the 64th National Basketball Championship at the Thyagaraj Stadium in Delhi today.
Now, J&K being the loser of round three, will take on Assam in the Kalinga Trophy quarterfinals as per the norms of the Basketball Federation of India.
Ranbir, Shubam Sharma, Iqbal and Salinder emerged as the top performers of the Championship. All the four players displayed superb caging skills to help J&K register back to back victories.
Out of these four star performers, three players namely Ranbir, Shubam and Salinder are the trainees of SAI Day Boarding Scheme being run at MA Stadium in Jammu by basketball coach, Aman Sharma.
Earlier, J&K defeated Puducherry by (68-62) in a close contest and won against Chandigarh by 76-60, but lost to Karnataka by a big margin of 30 points (99-69).
The championship is being organized by the Basketball Federation of India and supported by IMG-Reliance.
In all, 51 teams including 27 men and 24 women are participating in this sporting extravaganza.
Last year’s top 10 teams as per ranking have been grouped in Pool A’ and B’ (Level I).
The winner will take home Rs 1,00,000 while the first and second runners-up will receive Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000, respectively. The rest of the teams will be playing the qualifying league in the Pools ‘C,D,E,F’ for a chance to be promoted to Level 1 for the 65th Senior National Basketball Championship.
Result: Jammu and Kashmir (Ranbir Singh 26, Salinder Singh 16) bt Puducherry (Vinod P 13, Naveen Kanth 12) 68-62 (12-16, 25-15, 17-8, 22-23).
Jammu & Kashmir (Ranbir 27, Iqbal 19, Shubam 11) bt Chandigarh (P Kumar 21, Surendar 20) 76-60 (23-12, 17-16, 14-17, 22-15).
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