India eliminated from FIBA Women’s Asia Cup after loss to South Korea

The Young Cagers put up a good fight in the first half.

The Indian women’s basketball team suffered another loss in the group stages of the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup 2021. The Young Cagers went down to a crushing 69-107 loss to South Korea in their second group stage game.

The loss also means that the Indian side will not be able to move onto the semi-finals of the Asia Cup. India also lost their opening game to Japan and failed to make a comeback in this one.

India had a poor start to the game as South Korea took control early on, sailing to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. The Young Cagers found some ground after early hiccups and the scoreboard read 26-20 in favour of South Korea at the end of the first quarter.

The Indian team started the second quarter quite well, being sturdy defensively and shutting out the Koreans. They even took an early 4-3 lead, before the South Korean women bounced back strongly. Repeated three-pointers ensured that the Korean side won the second quarter 25-15, going into half-time with a lead of 51-35.

South Korea went all out in second half

As India aimed to come out of the break firing on all cylinders, they were in for a rude awakening. South Korea were re-energized and played like another entity in the third quarter of an important Asia Cup match. They absolutely outclassed the Indian side and won the third quarter by a huge margin of 33-7. With a huge deficit to close down in the final quarter, India did try their best.

The Indian women produced some of their best work in the fourth quarter and worked hard to win it by the margin of 27-23. However, it wasn’t enough as South Korea’s lead was too big and they sailed to a second straight win in the Asia Cup 2021. South Korea’s forward Kang Lee-seul was the star of the show with 18 points, four assists and two rebounds. For India, Shireen Limaye was by far the best performer – managing to get 16 points and make 11 rebounds in the game.

In the end, the biggest difference between the two sides was their three-point conversion ratio. While South Korea converted 20 out of their 39 three-point attempts (with a 51.28% success rate), India only converted seven out of 21 attempts (33.33% success rate).

The final game

India can’t go past the group stages after this loss and will face a fierce New Zealand side in their final group game. The World No. 36 team have also lost their two group games and have also been eliminated from the competition.

For the Young Cagers, this game will be one for pride. They’ll be intent on taking the fight to the New Zealand women and coming up with a gritty win. At least being able to end the competition on a high can give confidence to the talented Indian cagers and help motivate them for future competitions.

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