SAMIJA Korde utilised her height advantage well to guide United Basketball Academy (UBA) to semi-finals of the Asmita Khelo India U-17 Basketball Championship in progress at the Dharampeth Krida Mandal (DKM) courts in Shankar Nagar on Thursday. In the first quarters of the tournament allotted to Nagpur by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and Sports Authority of India (SAI), the UBA girls defeated Players Basketball Gymkhana (PBG) by seven points 31-24 (5-6, 14-8, 8-6, 4-4).

 

Due to evening showers, the remaining quarter-finals of the seven-day tournament organised by DKM under the aegis of Nagpur District Basketball Association (NDBA) were postponed to Friday morning. In the only match played for the day, Samija (10) had a slow start as she scored her first basket in the second quarter. Once she gained her momentum, Samija was unstoppable and emerged as the top scorer of the match. She was ably assisted by young Aayushi Waghmare, who came as a substitute and netted valuable nine points for her team. For PBG, Riya Chipate and Asawari Hajare netted identical six points. On Friday morning: NBYS vs NASA; SNG vs SKS; DKM vs GKM.