Date:21/09/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/09/21/stories/2004092102671700.htm

Sport - Basketball

Iran outplays India

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE, SEPT. 20. India's hopes of finishing anything better than the seventh spot were shattered as it was outplayed by last year's runner-up Iran 45-86 in the Group II league encounter of the Asian junior basketball championship for junior men at the Rajiv Gandhi Sports Complex here this evening.

India was left to do the catching up game and it lasted till six minutes into the second quarter before an ebullient Iran simply cantered away with the match and booked itself a semifinal spot. India's initial thrust was decimated with some tight marking of Talwinderjit Singh, the skillful Indian forward and ball handler. Once that was achieved the rest simply cracked for India with Bijobi Vakkachan hardly making a dent. Jagdeep Singh and Yadwinder with little room inside, tried too much from the outside which proved easy pickings for the Iranians.

It was only in the second quarter that Jagdeep and even Talwinderjit managed to find the hoop to stem a rout accounting for 17 points against Iran's 20. But in the second session there was little that India could do to check the marauding Iran's four-some.

Coach B.S. Hooda understandably fielded his bench in the fourth quarter and they too fumbled with some easy pickings.

Korea recovered from an early deficit to outshoot Kazakhstan in the second half and coast through to a 91-86 win and become the second team from Group II to enter the semifinals. Korea will clash with China, which recorded its second win yesterday itself while Iran will take on Lebanon in what promises to be a `tough' encounter.

The results: Group II: Korea 91 (Jin Soo Kim 32, Sung Jin ark 19, Sung Hoon Park 16) bt Kazakhstan 86 (Yegor Birylin 14, Maxim Voyeikov 15, Anton Ponomarev 14, Roman Assilbekov 10).

Iran 86 (Arashk Broojeni 18, Mohammedjavad Bitaghsir 11) bt India 45 (Talwinderjit Singh 13, Yadwinder Singh 11).

Group I: China 91 (Wang Yong 27, Guo Lei 15, Wang Nan 12) bt Chinese Taipei 87 (Lu Cheng Ju 18, Lin Yi Huei 15, Chien Chia Hung 15).

For 9 to 16 placings: Kuwait 95 (Abdulla Al Mutairi 18, Hussain Al Khababaz 17, Rashed Al Rabah 14, Bader Al Mutairi 13) bt Singapore 81 (Yeo Boon Hwee 12, Fu Wei Xiang 10, Tay Guen Hua 10); Japan 75 (Nishimura Fumio 14, Kimura Osamu 13, Ota Takumi 11) bt Yemen 71 (Salah Al Asbah 13, Ahmed Ahmed 12, Adel Bourji 11); Saudi Arabia 63 (A. Rahman M 22, Yahya Ali 14) bt Kyrgyzstan 54 (Nail Gaforov 13, Yuriy Kistanov 10).