Indian women find Japan too strong to handle in FIBA Asia Cup opener

NAGPUR: Having failed to play a single game in the past two years cost India dear as the 70th ranked women’s outfit found defending champions and basketball Olympic Games’ silver medalist Japan too tough to handle in their FIBA Asia Cup tournament opener at Amman, Jordan, on Monday. In yet another low, India lost to Japan by as many as 90 points (46-136).While India failed to get into their groove, Japan played perfectly to the plan and after taking a handy 27-point lead in the first period, the Asian champions dominated the remaining part of the clash to post a facile 90-point win.Indian skipper Shireen Limaye said, “It's been daunting to play with one of the best teams the game has ever seen. It’s extremely intimidating to play with a team like Japan and that too in our first game after two years. So it's definitely good exposure and we are just going to keep learning.”In their second outing, India will face the challenge of higher ranked Korea on Tuesday.RESULTJapan (Kiho Miyashita 27, Monica Okoye 24) beat India (Pushpa Senthil Kumar 11, Shireen Limaye 8, Madhu Kumari 7) 136-46 (41-14, 25-11, 38-14, 32-7).