Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 9: Jammu and Kashmir women and men teams put up creditable performances to win their respective matches in the ongoing 67th Senior National Basketball Championship at Puducherry.
Jammu and Kashmir men team defeated their much fancied Uttar Pradesh by 68-58, while women team got better of lowly Tripura by 36-15.
Uttar Pradesh, which is much higher ranked team than J&K was stung by immaculate defence by J&K men and could not take lead even once in the encounter that continued for two hours. Amanjot Singh and Ranbir Singh spearheaded the J&K attack which was ably supported by Shubham Sharma and Jaskirat Singh.
The UP team recovered from 11 points deficit to trail by a solitary point at the half time after a three pointer by UP forward was followed by a foul by tall Salinder Singh at the rebound. The following two free throws were converted and UP got a shot in the arm by 5 straight points. However, J&K men once again put their heads down in defense and reclaimed their 11 point lead which they maintained till the final hooter.
In their maiden outing, J&K women elbowed out their opponents Tripura from the very beginning. Tripura women could not match powerful under-basket play of tall Pearl Sharma and succumbed to her rebounds on either board. She was ably supported by Kanupriya Dubey and Pratibha Takotra.
The president JKBA, Vikramaditya Singh, MLC congratulated both the teams for their performances.
The team is sponsored by the J&K State Sports Council.
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