19 Sep : India were done in by the China wall. With Nan Chen and Zengyu Mia taking care of the flanks and interchanging positions with Xin Guang who started at the centre, it was near impossible for the hosts to make any inroads. And that reflected on the scoreboard and the eventual result.
China, predictably, cakewalked (107/49) to retain a clean slate in the 23rd FIBA Asia Women Basketball Championships at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium. And the Indians continued with their bad run so far. Now it has become very important for the hosts to post wins against Japan and Thailand to remain in Level I.
The Chinese seem to have done excellent homework on Geethu Anna Jose, who top-scored for India on Friday. Allowing little room for her to manoeuvre, she completely crippled. Coach JP Singh tried out all possible tricks from his hat—he made frequent changes in the forward position as well as in defence —but with little effect. He even changed the ball handlers, bringing in Akansha in place of Anitha without much success.
In the first quarter, the Chinese pressed a littler harder than they would have liked and scored 29 points to India’s 13. They kept the same momentum to add 29 Points in the second quarter to finish for a comfortable half-time lead of 58-21. On the other hand, the Indians crawled, taking four minutes to score a basket as they were stuck at 13. However, they upped the ante in the last minute to score six points.
In the second half, the Indians showed gumption and played far better in close coordination with each other. Their scoring too improved. The burden of scoring fell on both Jose who did well despite constraints in the third and fourth.
The Chinese had slowed down a bit in the last quarter and, surprisingly, played some rough game. In fact, they committed more fouls than the Indians with just three minutes on the clock. But then the Chinese lead was so impregnable that the visitors did not have to bother too much. They had comfortably crossed the 100-point match with a minute to go for the hooter.
Earlier, Japan outplayed Thailand 94-60 to salvage themselves after the loss to China. Thailand are, no doubt, the weakest team in the fray and they will run into India on Monday after a day’s rest.
Results (Level I)
Japan 94 (Yoshie Sakurada 17, Yuko Oga 13, Al Mitani 11) bt Thailand 60 (Naruemoi Banmoo 19, Juthamas Jantakan 16, Suksomwong 8).
India 49 (P Anitha 14, Geethu Anna Jose 9, Prashanti Singh 9) lost to China 107 (Zengyu Ma 17, Xin Guan 15, Dan Liu 15)