Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore 

Bangalore, Apr 15: K S Hedge team (Mangalore) went down fighting despite a stiff fight put up by them against Nationals Mysore, with the latter sailing through to the semi-final league stage of the state sub-junior (under-13) basketball championship at the Sree Kanteerava stadium here on Monday, April 14. 

There were several jittery moments given to Nationals Mysore in the second and third quarters before it finally won 40-34. The star player on the winning side was undoubtedly Jitender Singh. However it may be noted that it was Vadiraj who converted two crucial baskets to give the Mysore side the lead in the fourth quarter.  

In the losing side the departure of two important players Prem and Silova in the fourth quarter for K S Hegde, proved to be too harsh a body blow as the team was then reduced to three players.   

Both Jitender and Vadiraj of Nationals Mysore made good use of this advantage. Changing ends with a slender 16-14 lead after being 13-4 up in the first quarter, Nationals failed to control Mangalore side’s Moin and went into the fourth quarter at 24-all.

The results were as follows: quarterfinals: boys: Nationals Mysore 40 (Jitender Singh 21) bt KS Hegde (Mangalore) 34 (Moin 19); YCBC (Bellary) 40 (Kiran Kumar 17, Wesley Joseph 14) bt Beagles 16; N Shetty (Mangalore) 46 (Nihal Kumar 24) bt Merchants (Davangere) 23; Vijayanagar (Hospet) 29 (Rahul 11) bt Kanaka (Kolar) 22. Girls: JSC 22 (Rakshitha 10) bt N Shetty (Mangalore) 20; Beagles 32 (Sushma 10) bt VN Sports Club 12.