KATHMANDU: Hosts Prime and Xavier International College advanced to the girls’ semi-finals of the seventh Prime Cup U-19 (+2) Basketball Championships here today.

In the only girls’ match held in Naya Bazaar, Prime registered a narrow 24-20 victory over Orient College. Babita Khoraja Pun top scored with eight points for Prime. Xavier did not have any match on Wednesday but Prime’s win helped them secure a place in last four. Himalayan White House and National Campus have already made into the semi-finals.

In the boys’ section, VS Niketan strengthened their chances to qualify for the last eight with a 57-44 thrashing of the Reliance Academy. Nischal Tuladhar collected 20 valuable points for the winners. Reliance, however, won their second match of the day after they saw off Campion College 39-34. Niraj Pariyar chipped in with 18 points. In a one-sided match, Ace Institute of Management edged past Galaxy Public School 52-26 with Jimmy Sherpa netting 18 points.

Navarja Dahal collected 19 points to give Golden Gate ‘B’ a huge 54-33 victory over White House. The other match saw CPS School defeating Gyanodaya Bal Batika 41-38. Sujan Pandey scored 17 points for the winning team.

In a low scoring match, National sneaked past NCCS 20-16 with Ashish Bharati scoring nine points. However, the match top scorer was Bimon from NCCS with 10 points.