Agradneya two good

The club members were evidently ecstatic. Senior member Manisha Khaprekar, a women’s national, said, “The girls have been playing well, even when they have to play two consecutive matches (all but two of the U-16 side are minis girls).”

Today, the U-13 girls put behind their indifferent performance in the semi-final yesterday to drub Saraswati Kanya Sangh, Nagpur (SKS) 40-21; and the U-16 side downed a depleted Shikshan Prasarak Sangh, Pune (SPS) 41-26.

In between, Loyola, Pune outplayed local lads Mastan YMCA 47-26 to claim the miniboys title. And later, to the delight of the host team fans, Fr Agnel upset state champs Green Star, Solapur 50-39 to clinch the youth boys title.

The match up between Priyadarshini Patil (AVS) and Mrunmayee Chincholikar (SKS), both of whom had donned the Maharashtra jersey at the Pondicherry Minis National last May, was easily the highlight of the under-13 final.

As expected, Priyadarshini was part of a double team to prevent Mrunmayee from scoring, while Mrunmayee stood in the second tier of a double team on the former.

To be fair to the duo, each held her own in offence, Priyadarshini easily dribbling past the stepped walls, and Mrunmayee scoring repeatedly from outside. Priyadarshini was a shade superior in offensive rebounding, though.

But thanks to Agradneya’s superior bench strength, they had not to rely solely on the quick ball-handler. Unfortunately, SKS, a club which has generously contributed to the state ranks (Sonal Kavde, Archana Mulay, Renuka Deshmukh, and more recently, NeelambariKane and Snehashree Desai), could not afford that luxury, and the light-eyed Mrunmayee had to wage a lone battle.

The first quarter was closely fought with the score reading 8-5. But Agradneya stepped on the gas in the second and third, when the margin widened to 19-10 and 32-17 respectively.

The boys final was one-sided. The Pune side were richly endowed in inches, and they duly dominated the boards, scoring a substantial percentage of points from offensive rebounds. The margin could have been wider had Pune forced the pace instead of falling back on their lead.

Though Shikshan Prasarak Mandal had defeated AVS in the state youth championship, their contest today was reduced to a non-event by the absence of SPM’s first five, who were all appearing for the SSC prelims back home.

Results (all final)

Boys (U-16): Fr Agnel 50 (KB Binoy 25, Anup Nair 18) bt Green Star, Solapur 39 (Daniel Kamble 19, Sadat Kharadi 9) HT 22-17;

(U-13):Loyola School, Pune 47 (Karna Mehta 14, Rahul Shetty 6, PrasadShinde 8) bt Mastan YMCA 26 (Naved K 6, Shaikh Faisal 6) HT 21-16.

Girls (U-16): Agradneya, Dombivli 41 (Gayatri Manolikar 28) bt Shikshan Prasarak Mandal 26 Shweta Shitole 9) HT 15-15;

(U-13): Agradneya 40 (Priyadarshini Patil 8, Madhura Bodas 7, Rucha Marathe 6, Prachi Thatte 6) bt Saraswati Kanya Sangh, Nagpur 21 (Mrunmayee Chincholikar 10) HT 19-10.