Bengaluru, Tuesday, 6th September 2022: Faced against world #2 Australia, the Indian U18 girls were no match, falling to a lopsided 49-116 loss, in their opening game of the Asian Championship.
Following a day’s delay due to heavy rains, Division A action of the FIBA Women’s U18 Championship finally tipped off at the Kanteerava Stadium in the heart of Bengaluru.
India’s shoddy defense
The result was expected. But the manner in which India started the game was disappointing to say the least, especially on the defensive end. Allowing easy driving lanes to the basket, coupled with a failure to box out and secure the boards, saw India concede points easily in the paint.
The stronger and physical Australia were able to bully their way to the rim, brooking no resistance from the Indian squad.
17-0 opening run by Australia
Offensively, in the first quarter, India struggled to get the ball past the half court, with Australia’s pressing defense leading to multiple turnovers and simple transition layups.
At the end of the first quarter, Australia led by a whopping 32-8 margin, including starting the game on an eye-popping 17-0 run.
With Australia relatively stepping off the gas and bringing in substitutes en masse, India managed to put up 17 points in the second quarter.
But Australia led 60-25 at halftime and from this point it was simply a matter of completing the formalities of a decisive 116-49 victory.
70-38 rebounding disparity
Despite being similarly sized as Australia in terms of average height, India conceded a whopping 26 offensive rebounds. Overall, Australia enjoyed a massive 70-38 rebounding disparity. India also turned the ball over 30 times as against Australia’s 12. Neither of these rebounding and turnover numbers bodes well for India in the elite Division A as it next faces other heavyweight teams like Korea and New Zealand.
India (Deepthi Raja 14 pts, Sathya Krishnamurthi 12 pts) lose to Australia (Isobel Borlase 20 pts, Isla Juffermans 18 pts) 49-116 [8-32, 17-28, 10-31, 14-25]
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India next faces Korea on 7th September at 6pm IST. All games are being streamed live on the FIBA YouTube Channel as well as Doordarshan.