Tame show by Indian cagers in opener

India’s efforts in the opening match of the 23rd FIBA Asia Women’s Championship fell far short of expectations as defending champions Korea defeated them 46-102 in the Level I competition at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Thursday.

India’s efforts in the opening match of the 23rd FIBA Asia Women’s Championship fell far short of expectations as defending champions Korea defeated them 46-102 in the Level I competition at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Thursday.

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The home team looked a bit rusty in the initial stage of the contest and that helped the Koreans gain control of the match and set the tempo for the rest of contest. The visitors were leading 27-7 at the end of the first quarter.

India made efforts to catch up with their speedy rivals but the team committed too many fouls which restricted their scoring against a tight Korean defence. In the second quarter, nothing extraordinary happened for the Indians as the eventual winner kept the momentum going. Pratima Singh, who scored 12 points, got couple of three-pointers but that couldn’t save the day for home team.

Team coach J.P. Singh said: “All is not lost, there are more matches to be played. We will give a better performance in the remaining matches.”

Result: Korea 102 (Yeon Ha Beon 26, Min Sun Jung 20, Jung En Kim 14) bt India 46 (Pramita Singh 12, Geethu Anna Jose 15, Kiranjit Kaur 8).