Navneet Singh , 22 Sep : Talk of the day wasn’t Korea’s brilliant fight back in the match against Japan, but India’s dismay performance in the Level I competition of the 23 rd FIBA Asia women championship here at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium.
On Monday, India surrendered to Thailand 67-78, to disappoint the basketball fraternity that had come to watch them play. India is yet to win a match in their pool.
India’s next meet Japan on Tuesday. Japanese who are known for their fighting spirit, a miracle could save a day from hosts.
In today’s match, after trailing in the initially stages of the game, India girls leveled the score 16-16 each. It gave the impression that they were in no mood to give up. But that ray of hope vanished as the match progressed.
Thailand cagers were good in blocking Indian skipper Geethu Anna Jose, who did bulk of scoring in the match today. Once Geethu who was equally good in rebounds, was closely marked, it had its effect on the scoreboard. As other players in the team weren’t able to convert basket as expected and frittered way chances that came their way.
After the match, India’s team coach Dinesh Mitchelle admitted that the players couldn’t play as per planned. “We had worked out strategy to score win over Thailand. But the result reflects that it didn’t work,” he said.
For Thailand Juthamas Jantakan was the main architect of team’s win.. She scored 20 points. She was assisted by Juthathip Mathuros and Suksomwong who contributed 16 points each to the team’s total.
Earlier, in an exciting match, Korean came from behind to outplay Japan 82-68 in Level I competition of the tournament.
It was Koreans brilliant shooting skills particularly from outside the circle that made all the difference in winning the game, and helped them maintain a clean slate in the tournament.
Japan made a good start and were leading by a good margin of 12 points (33-21) in the first 15-minute of the game.
But with less than two minutes for the second quarter, Korea’s key player
Jung eun Park, who top scored for the team with 17 points, netted three consecutive three pointers that not only reduced the lead from 13 points to seven (35-42), but changed the complexion of the game.
Thereafter, it was Korean day as they continue to dominate the court.
With time ticking away Japanese made efforts to catch up with their rivals but the 14 points lead proved too big.
Results
India 67 (Geethu Anna Jose 23, Prashanti Singh 16, Anitha P 13) lost to Thailand 78 (Juthamas Jantakan 20, Juthathip Mathuros 16, Suksomwong 16).
Korea 82 (Jung eun Park 17, Kwe ryong Kim 16, Jung eun Kim 15) bt Japan 68 (Yuko Oga16, Kumiko Yamada 13, Yoshie Sakurada 13).