FIBA U-18 Women's Asian Championship: Kiwis edge past India

The Indians will now play the 7th and 8th classification match against Indonesia.

India suffered yet another loss in the ongoing FIBA U-18 Women’s Asian Championship. New Zealand pipped the Indians 66 - 63 to clinch the nail-biting thriller. This was India’s third straight defeat after having lost to Australia and Korea in the opening two games.

New Zealand opened their scoring account as early as the second minute of the game. India’s Manmeet Kaur committed a personal foul resulting in New Zealand getting two free throws. Allyah Leusogi-Ape converted both of the free throws to provide two points for New Zealand.

India made a slow start

Manmeet Kaur helped India register its first two points as she successfully made a 2 point turnaround jump shot. Manmeet turned out to be India’s top performer in the match. She accumulated as many as 21 points. However, her brilliance was overshadowed by New Zealand’s well-coordinated teamplay.

India, however, edged out New Zealand in the number of rebounds. Manmeet had a total of 12 rebounds as compared to Mackenzie Chatfield, who registered 10 rebounds. In terms of assists, Mackenzie Chatfield top-scored for New Zealand with one less than Deepthi Raja’s tally of seven. 

Deepthi Raja was irresistible from the ‘steals’ point of view. She produced as many as 12 steals during the match. On the other hand, Aria Cowley of New Zealand could only come up with two steals. In terms of blocks, India’s Bhumika Singh had two while New Zealand’s Florence Dallow only had one.

Both won two quarters each

The final scoreboard was testament to the fact that it was an evenly contested game. At the end of 40 minutes, the quarter-wise scores read as NZ vs IND: 17 - 9, 19 - 14, 15 - 24, 15 - 26.

Both the teams won two quarters each. India made a valiant comeback in the third quarter but their slow start cost them in the end. India had an outside chance to level the scores in the final few seconds of the match. Had Nitika Amuthan converted the 3pt jump shot, India would have got the much-needed three points to be at par with New Zealand’s tally of 66 points.

New Zealand is ranked 21st in the world contrary to the Indian team which is placed 52nd. The one positive India would be happy to take home is the margin of defeat was minimal. In the earlier two matches, India lost 49 - 116 to Australia and 47 - 69 to Korea. 

India next faces Indonesia (world rank 41). The match will be played on Friday - 9th September from 13:30 local time. It will be held at Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bangalore - the host for the 2022 FIBA U-18 Women’s Asian Championship.

In Division, India finished fourth in Group A whereas Indonesia also suffered the same fate in Group B. Hence, both teams are up against each other in the ‘Classification 7 - 8’ match. The winner of this tie will finish seventh and continue to remain in Division A whereas the loser will end up at the last position and will be demoted to Division B for the upcoming tournament.