The nine-day tournament is organised by DKM under the aegis of Nagpur District Basketball Association (NDBA) is partly sponsored by senior basketball coach Arvind Garud of Garuda Gladiators and Darshan Pande of Cuisine Caterers.
In a low-scoring first quarterfinal of the evening, NBYS rode on the heroics of Mrunmayee Sathe (10) and Devashree Karale (5) defeated Nagpur Amateur Sports Association (NASA) 21-17. The quarter-wise progress for NBYS read 6-8, 7-2, 2-1, 6-6.
The other two quarterfinals were lop-sided contests. District Youth champions SNG made light work of Saraswati Kanya Sangh (SKS) 40-13. For the winners, Gunjan Mantri scored a game-high 18 points as Manjiri Padhye netted eight points. For SKS, Devika Thakre scored six points.
In the last quarterfinal, DKM defeated Gurudeo Nagar Krida Mandal (GKM) 45-15. For the winners, Meehira Dhote (17) and Rajvi Maladhari (14) played well. For GKM, Anushka Bokade (11) did well.
In the semifinals that will be played on Sunday evening SNG will face NBYS at 5.30pm while DKM will square up against United Basketball Academy (UBA) 6.30 pm.
RESULTS (all quarterfinals)
NBYS (Mrunmayee Sathe 10, Devashree Karale 5) bt NASA (Pakhi Lonkar 6, Rishika Kalamkar 4) 21-17 (6-8, 7-2, 2-1, 6-6); SNG (Gunjan Mantri 18, Manjiri Padhye 8) bt SKS (Devika Thakre 6) 40-13 (21-4, 8-1, 7-6, 4-2); DKM (Meehira Dhote 17, Rajvi Maladhari 14) bt GKM (Anushka Bokade 11) 45-15 (13-6, 15-4, 11-3, 6-2).