Australia hammers India 116-49 at FIBA Asian U-18 Women’s Championship

India was never in the contest in any quarter as it was outplayed 116-49 by Australia.

Deepthi Raja of India in action against Australia in a FIBA U-18 Women’s Asian Championship Division A match at Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bengaluru on September 6, 2022. | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN

There was never a doubt about the victory for Australia. It was only about the margin of defeat for India.

The host was never in the contest in any quarter as it was outplayed 116-49 by a team, ranked No.2 in the world, 50 places above India, in a Group-A match of the FIBA Asian u-18 women’s basketball championship at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.

It was a day when all the remaining higher-ranked teams scripted victories. With the first day being washed out due to heavy rain, the tournament got off to a fine start.

Earlier, in the first match of the day, Chinese Taipei gave a splendid display of its fighting abilities before going down to seventh-ranked Japan 77-90 in a Group-B match. Later, China showed why it’s a top-ranked team (World No.4) when it drubbed Indonesia 91-30 in another Group-B contest.

Being stronger and quicker in all respects, Australia ran circles around the host from the first quarter itself. Till the fifth minute, the score read 17-0 in favour of Australia. It took time for India to get into some sort of a groove. And that came in the second quarter, where it showed a sense of system and pattern. But Australia proved it belongs to a different league.

Division A results

Group-A: Australia 116 (Sophie Burrows 17, Dallas Loughridge 13,Nyadiew Puoch 14, Isobel Borlase 20, Isla Juffermans 18) bt India 49 (Deepthi Raja 14, Sathya Krishnamurthi 12); Korea 81 (Mina Kim 13, Seoyeon Ko 13, Dahyun Lee 12, Jinyoung Park 18, Seonglin Park 14) bt New Zealand 64 (Allyah Leusogi-Ape 16, Lily Parke 12).