Basketball | Sreekala Rani fires 30, India finish 5th in FIBA Asia Cup | More sports News
Nagpur: Sreekala Rani fired a game-high 30 points as India concluded their disappointing campaign with a commanding 103-77 victory over Kazakhstan in the FIBA Asia Cup basketball tournament at Shenzhen Sports Center in China on Saturday. With this 26-point triumph, the 79th-ranked Indian outfit finished fifth in Division Bof the biannual tournament.A day after they committed a handful of defensive lapses against Thailand to bow out of medal contention, the India cagers corrected their mistakes and came up as a totally different outfit. For the first time in the tournament, India utilised their speed well and stole the ball on 19 occasions, firing as many as 37 fast break and 44 turnover points to conclude their campaign on a high.With a dominant second quarter, India took a match-winning lead over the 77th ranked Kazakhstan and never looked back. The quarter-wise progress in India’s favour read 26-22, 32-12, 21-26, 24-17.RESULT: India (Sreekala Rani 30, Sanjana Ramesh 19, Pushpa Senthil Kumar 15, Dharshini Thirunavukkarasu 13) bt Kazakhstan (Daria Koroleva 15, Alexandra Petelina 11) 10377 (26-22, 32-12, 21-26, 24-17).
