BANGKOK (Thailand) - Kazakhstan dominated the erstwhile-unbeaten India, 60-36, on Saturday night at the Nimibutr Stadium here to barge into the FIBA U18 Women's Asia Cup 2026-Division B Final.
With little rest from their Qualification to Semi-Finals win over Thailand barely 24 hours ago, the champions from CABA hardly showed any struggle in making sure that their hopes of reaching Division A stays alive.
They took the 15-10 lead behind a 9-2 run to finish the first, and then leaned on defense to limit their foes to a combined 17 points in the middle chapters while they produced 31 to break the game wide open.
And in a totally different scene from their Group Phase encounter, the SABA representatives never found any solution, and the Kazakhs went on to cruise their way into the finale to set up a meeting versus Lebanon.
The young Cedars from WABA were the first to reach the Final following a 77-54 rout of Indonesia earlier in the night, securing their second straight trip to the second division's Last Dance for a chance to finish the story.
The Final is set tomorrow, Sunday, July 19, at 18:30 local time, with the winner gaining the coveted promotion and will compete in the next edition of the FIBA U18 Women's Asia Cup in 2028 in, interestingly, Kazakhstan.
Kaussar Ybray finished with 18 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, and 8 of the team's 22 steals to lead Team Kazakhstan, who have now chalked up their 4th win in 5 games thus far in the ongoing tilt.
Yerlan Shakhida backed her up with 15 points as the duo carried much of the offense for their crew.
That's a total opposite of India's production, as none from the crew managed to score in double figures in the heartbreaking defeat, with Mahek Sharma ending up as their top scorer with 9 points and 6 rebounds.
With the loss, India and Indonesia - teams that actually fought one another in the Group Phase's final day that saw the latter win via big margin, 79-46 - will figure in a rematch in the Third-Place Game tomorrow as well.
FIBA