Kerala boys youth basketball champions after 30 years
This is only the third time Kerala boys are winning this championship.
The last time Kerala won the Youth Championship was in 1986-87 in Thiruvananthapuram. Before that, they had won in 1982-83, also in Thiruvananthapuram.
Captain Sejin Mathew was once again rock-solid in his centre position and the offensive damage was done mostly by Amal Reghu and Chacko Simon who scored 33 and 19 points respectively. Sejin finished with 16 points.
Kerala were trailing 16-18 at the end of the first quarter as Uttar Prades's offensive rebounding strategy was working well for them. However, Kerala came back stronger to take the lead and closed the second quarter at 42-33. After that, they never let go of the lead and surged ahead in the last two quarters to script the historic win.
It was a victory fashioned by team work and Kerala coach Prem Kumar pointed it out after the match. "All the players were 100 percent committed to the cause and they knew their roles well and executed it to perfection. A lot had to be said about our teamwork," said Kumar after the match.
"We knew we had the capacity to win the championship and thankfully everyone played well for us. We are all extremely happy. It's indeed a big moment for Kerala basketball," said captain Sejin, who was the MVP in NBA training programme earlier this year.
It was the good preparation that paved the way for this success, believes Kumar. "The selections were done well in advance in August. That gave us the time to prepare and work on various aspects of the game. We got to practice at the Indoor Stadium in KE College in Mannamam and everything was well taken care of and that certainly helped," said Kumar.
Kerala women are always said to be better than their male counterparts in basketball but Kumar said that it's just a perception. "Often in the past, we had to play against over-age players in these youth championships due to manipulations by other teams. This time around, there were stricter measures taken and that meant we were able to show our full potential," he said.
Earlier, Kerala girls lost their final to Tamil Nadu 66-82. If they had won it would have been Kerala's 10th title success in the girl's category in the youth championship.
Results: Girls: Final: Tamil Nadu 82 (Avanthi Vardhan 17, S Pushpa 17, T Dharshini 13) bt Kerala 66 (Shreekala R 27, Olivia Shaibu 13, Jayalakshmi VJ 11).
Boys: Final: Kerala 85 (Amal Reghu 33, Chacko Simon 19, Sejin Mathew 16, Shaun Luiz 10) bt Uttar Pradesh 51 (Priyanshu 21, Bhagyansh Gulati 21).
Source: www.bing.com