Double delight for Mumbai North

NANDED: Playing with a dedicated team effort, Mumbai North cagers claimed twin crowns in the Maharashtra State Inter-District Youth Basketball Championship, which concluded at the Guru Gobind Singh Stadium in Nanded on Wednesday.While Mumbai North boys defeated Nashik 79-74, their girls' counterparts stunned defending champions Pune in a thrilling tie by three points 52-49 to emerge victorious.The Maharashtra state teams will be picked from the five-day selection tourney. After being handed an 11-point (44-33) defeat by Mumbai South West, the Nagpur boys had to content with a fourth place finish. In an exciting boys' section title clash, Abuzar Patel fired a game-high 28 points to steer Mumbai North to a fine five-point triumph. Abuzar got a fine support from point guard Ayum Khan, who netted 19 points.Similarly, in the girls' section summit clash, a 23-point effort from Shreya Salian gave Mumbai North a thumping 52-49 triumph over Pune. Earlier in the semifinal, Mumbai North defeated Nashik in a one-sided contest. Sakshi Arora top scored with 16 points.RESULTSBoys (final): Mumbai North (Abuzar Patel 28, Ayum Khan 19) bt Nashik (Mohit Pokar 22, Tanish Sethi 16) 79-74 (18-10, 19-24, 24-26, 18-20); Third Place: Mumbai South West (Mohammad Sufiyan 10) bt Nagpur (Deepak Mishra 13) 44-33 (15-12, 12-9, 14-7, 3-5) Semifinals: Nashik (Mohit Pokar 18) bt Nagpur (Deepak Mishra 13) 57-49 (8-6, 17-8, 12-18, 20-17); Mumbai North (Salman Khan 20) bt Mumbai South West (Sheikh Zaid 16) 57-55 (16-14, 12-17, 12-12, 17-12)Girls (final): Mumbai North (Shreya Salian 23) bt Pune (Simran 16) 52-49 (11-13, 14-15, 10-7, 17-14)Third Place: Nashik (Aditi Deshmukh 21) bt Kolhapur (Swapnil Chavan 19) 38-29 (5-9, 19-10, 10-2, 4-8)Semifinals: Pune (Shreya Joshi 15) bt Kolhapur (Swapnali Chavan 31) 53-43 (12-10, 20-10, 15-8, 6-11); Mumbai North (Sakshi Arora 16) bt Nashik (Jayanti Dugad 15) 58-38 (16-12, 15-8, 18-15, 3-8)