DIMAPUR, MAY 8 (MExN): Nagaland Basketball Association in collaboration with Dimapur District Basketball Association sent a 12 member boys team to the 69th Junior National Basketball Championship which began on May 7 in Ludhiana, Punjab.
The Junior Boys team of Nagaland is being led by Keneingutuo Kevin of Holy Cross HSS, Dimapur. Officials Tiameren Amri and Rajan Nayak accompanied the team as Manager and Coach respectively.
In their first match on Monday, Nagaland boys were defeated by Gujarat 66-24in a lopsided match. The Nagaland team led the scoring in the first quarter 10-8 but fizzled out in the remaining quarters as the opponents took control of the game. Captain Keneingutou was the top scorer with 10 points, followed by Kethokhru Ernest Nakro who finished with 8 points for Nagaland.
In the second match on Tuesday, Assam defeated Nagaland 63-40. Despite a much improved performance, the Naga cagers went down to the far experienced and superior team from Assam. The Assam boys led the scoring in all quarters of the game. Nagaland however finished strongly in the last quarter outscoring their opponents 17-12 in a losing cause. Marshal Pashel was the top scorer for Nagaland with 11 points and Keneingutou added 10 points.
Coach Rajan said: “We will have to get more scoring from multiple players to win here. It has to be an all-round effort from our young boys both in our offensive and defensive games if we want to win our final game.”
On Wednesday, Nagaland will be up against Jharkhand in the final league game at 08:15am.
