NAGPUR: In yet another low, Indian women hoopsters failed on both sides of the court as world no. 36 New Zealand cruised to an emphatic 60-point (109-49) win over them in their third and final group outing of Division A in the
FIBA Asia Cup
basketball tournament at Amman, Jordan, on Wednesday.
The Indian team management has been guilty of employing the wrong strategy vis-a-vis their woman-to-woman marking in defense, substitutions, and turnovers as they failed to settle into the groove to suffer a sound thrashing from one of the most physical sides in the competition.
After winning the first quarter 28-14, New Zealand never looked back and stretched their lead further before winning the contest by as many as 60 points.
For the winners,
Mary Goulding
and
Penina Davidson
in their 20-minute presence on the court netted identical 18 points. For India, Shruthi Arvind (12) and
Sathiya Senthil Kumar
(10) scored in double digits.
In form Indian skipper
Shireen Limaye
, who played for 17 minutes on the court, failed to find the hoop but is optimistic of a better show in their final classification game. She said, "It was tough, New Zealand is one of the most physical teams in this competition. It's not as easy as it looks when we watch the game. I am glad that we played against these three experienced teams in the competition so that we can improve in our last and most important game in the competition."
After losing all the three group games, the 70th ranked Indian outfit will now have to give their best in the final classification game to maintain their position in the Division A of the Asia Cup.
On Thursday, India will play their final game of the competition against the looser of Chinese Taipei and Philippines.
RESULTNew Zealand (Mary Goulding 18, Penina Davidson 18) bt India (Shruthi Arvind 12, Sathiya Senthil Kumar 10) 109-49 (28-14, 22-13, 23-7, 36-15)
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