Mumbai : Mumbai South West (MSW) and Mumbai South East (MSE), both recorded fluent semi-final wins to set a title clash in the 32nd Maharashtra State Inter-District Youth (boys & girls) Basketball Championship.
While MSW cruised to a 36-17 victory against Nagpur after enjoying a commanding 26-6 half-time lead, MSE easily accounted for Mumbai Central winning at 45-24 after taking a 27-14 at the end of the opening two quarters.
Meanwhile in the competition for girls, Nagpur showed plenty of resilience and fighting spirit as they came from a 13-21 first half deficit to overcome Thane by a close 46-41 margin in a thrilling semi-final encounter. Raiska Pande with 15 points was the star of the Nagpur girl’s win and was well supported by Rucha Aurangabadkar (9), Shreya Dandekar (8) and Rutuja Rotkar (6) making useful contributions. For the Thane side Sakshi Kotian and Neha Shahu were the leading scorers with 15 and 11 points respectively. In the second semi-final, Shruti Sherigar scored a high 24 points and single-handedly guided Pune to thumping 55-15 victory against Mumbai North.