INDIA BEAT KAZAKHSTAN TO WIN FIBA ASIA CUP DIVISION B TITLE

INDIA WINS FIBA ASIA CUP DIVISION B TITLE

2017 FIBA Women's Asia Cup, the qualifying tournament for 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup was held at Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium in Bangalore for the past 7 days. India banking on home support, made it big, defeating Kazakhstan in the final in a nail biting match to make it to the Division A for the 2019 edition of the FIBA Women's Asia Cup. India trailed throughout the match until the dying minutes of the end quarter, but just edged past the Kazaks 75-73 in the last second and lifted the trophy. Jeena Palanilkumkalayil Skaria was the top player of the match.

INDIA WINS FIBA ASIA CUP DIVISION B

The tournament was composed of two divisions, Division A and Division B. For Division A, the 4 QF winners advance to the 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup.



Division B included the host team, India, previous championship Level II participants Kazakhstan and Srilanka. Returning participants that were absent two years ago were Lebanon, Uzbekistan and Singapore. Completing the eight-team Division B were FIBA Oceania representatives Fiji and American Samoa. The winner of Division B earned promotion to Division A for the 2019 edition of Asia Cup.



India(FIBA Rank 40) locked horns with Uzbekistan(FIBA Rank 54) and Srilanka(FIBA Rank 56) in the Group A matches. In the first match, India went past Uzbekistan 92-76[Scoring by quarter: 19-9, 24-21, 26-23, 23–23]. Anitha Paul Durai scored maximum points of the match across two teams (Points 28, Rebounds 5, Assists 5, Steals 1).



In 2nd group game against Srilanka, India completely outclassed their opponent 88-42[Scoring by quarter: 23-10, 17-3, 19-13, 29-16]. Grima Merlin Varghese scored maximum points of the match(Points 19, Rebounds 10, Assists 1, Steals 3).

India topped Group A and went on to meet Fiji(FIBA Rank 78) in the Quarterfinals. India crushed Fiji 93-51[Scoring by quarter: 19-11, 23–12, 25–16, 26–12] to make it to the Semifinals. Anitha Paul Durai was the best player of the match(Points 15, Rebounds 2, Assists 3, Steals 3)



In Semifinals, India faced Lebanon(FIBA Rank T-54). India sailed past the Lebanese challenge 79-69[Scoring by quarter: 16-20, 17-18, 23-20, 23-11]. India trailed throughout the first 2 quarters, but eventually made it to the final with some spirited performance from Jeena Palanilkumkalayil Skaria(Points 20, Rebounds 7, Assists 6, Blocks 4)

India in the finals faced their toughest opponent of the tournament, Kazakhstan(FIBA Rank 43). India trailed throughout the match until the dying minutes of the end quarter, but just edged past the Kazaks 75-73 in the last second and lifted the trophy.[Scoring by quarter: 16-19, 15-20, 19-19, 25-15]. Jeena Palanilkumkalayil Skaria was again the top player of the match (Points 20, Rebounds 6, Assists 4, Blocks 2)



There were some spirited Indian performances all through the tournament. Anitha Paul Durai stood the 2nd best player of the tournament with 16.4 points per game. Barkha Sonkar, Anitha Paul   and Kavita Akula took the top assists position(2nd, 4th and 7th) with 4.5, 4, and 4 assists per game respectively. Anitha Paul Durai also scored the maximum points for India in the tournament. With 82 points, she finished 2nd. Jeena Palanilkumkalayil Skaria had best block, averaging 2 blocks per game and also 3rd in efficiency with 14.2  per game.



Overall, a successful outing for India in this FIBA Asia Cup and it is satisfying to see them back to the Division A of the next edition in 2019.