FIBA U18 Asian C’Ships: India goes down 63-66 to New Zealand; Japan beats China to top Group B

In the other games, Japan topped Group-B with a 76-59 win over China while Australia finished first in Group A, defeating Korea 96-66.

India finished fourth and last in the group, and will fight to stay in Division-A when it takes on Indonesia for the 7-8 positions on Friday. (File Photo) | Photo Credit: The Hindu

India dished out a gutsy display, but it wasn’t enough as it went down fighting to New Zealand 63-66 in a Group-A match of the FIBA Asian women’s u-18 basketball championship here on Thursday.

India finished fourth and last in the group, and will fight to stay in Division-A when it takes on Indonesia for the 7-8 positions on Friday.

After two defeats, India played really well and looked like it could post a win over New Zealand, but the latter proved a hard nut to crack.

Earlier, Japan topped Group-B with a 76-59 win over China while Australia finished first in Group A, defeating Korea 96-66.

India didn’t start well, taking its time to settle down. Trailing in the first two quarters: (9-17) & (23-36), it fought back valiantly in the third. Picking up speed and combining well, India reduced the margin to just four points (47-51) at the end of third quarter.

The final quarter was exciting. India equalised for the first time a 51-each with eight minutes remaining for the final whistle. From then on, it was a see-saw battle.

India had its chances to win, but not converting the free throws (18.8 per cent) would hurt the team a lot. While all metrics seemed equal, New Zealand’s conversion of free throw was above par (83.3 percent).

The results:

Group-A: New Zealand 66 (Florence Dallow 12, Lilly Parke 11) bt India 63 (Deepthi Raja `4, Sathiya Krishnamurthi 15, Manmeet Kaur 21); Australia 96 (Tess Heal 16, Dallas Loughridge 13, Nyadiew Puoch 23, Isobel Borlase 12, Isla Juffermans 14) bt Korea 66 (Sol Kim 10, Jiwon Baek 13).

Group B: Chinese Taipei 81 (M Jing En 10, Yu Wen Hsiao 18) bt Indonesia 16; Japan 76 (Mlai Mori 10, Chinami Yokoyama 19, Msaki Sasaka 11, Yuzuyu Yasogawa 12, Nanami Tsuno 11) bt China 59 (Wenxia Li 18, Qingyang Li 14).