IND – FIBA Asia U16 Women Championship: East Asian foursome enter semifinals

PUNE (FIBA Asia U16 Women Championship): The four-pronged East Asian juggernaut rolled on with China, Japan, Korea and Chinese Taipei all reserving their place in the semifinals with their fourth win in as many games on Thursday.

On Friday, these four clearly a couple of notches ahead than the rest of the fray, will play between themselves in contests that will decide the draw for the semfinals.

China, who overwhelmed Singapore 115-15 will take on Chinese Taipei, who outplayed Philippines 110-30, on Friday to decide the top team of Group A.

In Group B, Japan and Korea both conceded exactly 26 points, but Korea scored one more than Japan’s 112 – against Malaysia – in their win over Sri Lanka. The winners of the Japan-Korea game on Friday will top Group B.

Hosts India in Group A and Thailand in Group B both moved into a 2-2 win-loss zone.

India maintained a firm grip throughout and defeated Hong Kong 74-49 and lined-up for a third place finish in Group A when they take on the win-less Singapore on Friday.

But Thailand, who negated Kazakhstan’s height advantage en route to their 71-58, have their task cut out when they play against fellow SEABA team Malaysia on the morrow.

Group A: India enhance Level I chances; No stopping China, Taipei

Pune girl Shireen Limaye and Sneha Rajguru shared the scoring honours for India with 16 each and Ranjeeta Kaur converted three of her 10 three-pointer attempts in her 10 points as India left Hong Kong way behind early in the game.

China and Chinese Taipei also emerged similar winners.

Taipei outscored their rivals by a whopping 19-6 margin in the first quarter and rolled ahead.

Chen Tsai-hsin uncorked a tournament-high 33 points in Taipei’s win.

That the game-high of 24 points each by Li Meng and Sun Mengxin was more than Singapore’s collective score reflected China’s overwhelming dominance on the minnows.

Group B: Japan clash with Korea for top place

Japan scored the first 20 points of the game before Magdalene Low’s fluky three-pointer ended the drought for Malaysia.

Even after that, success in scoring was far and few between for Malaysia and Japan raced away to their fourth win in a row.

All the 12 Japanese players scored – seven of them in double-digit – with the two players who played the least – Yuki Miyazawa (09:49) and Naoko Chikahira (10:55) – scoring 15 points each to share the scoring honors for Japan.

Korea’s win against Sri Lanka too came in a similar fashion.

Korea scored the first eight points of the game and the closed the first quarter with a 15-0 blitz that took the winds off the Lankan sails.

A win for the fancied East Asian team was a mere formality after that.

Daejong Park’s 100% record in two-point attempts (5/5), apart from 2 / 6 in three-pointers for her game-high 19 points was the highlight of the Korean win.

Olessya Kanaikina and Natalya Yakovitskaya converted a free-throw each early in the game to put Kazakhstan ahead, but that was the only moment the Middle Asian nation led for the rest of the game.

Thidaporn Maihom scored once from the foul-line and once on the paint and Thailand nudged ahead never to look back.

Scores

Group A

India 74 (Shireen Limaye 16, Sneha Rajguru 16, Ranjeeta Kaur 12, Navaneetha 10) bt Hong Kong 49 (Chau Hoin Tung 13, Wong Ka Yee 10). Quarterwise Scores: 15-11, 31-21, 56-41.

Chinese Taipei 110 (Chen Tsai-hsin 33, Huang Hsiang-ting 18, Chang Chi-fang 14) bt Philippines 30 (Lore Rivera 11). Quarterwise Scores: 32-8, 60-10, 78-24.

China 115 (Li Meng 24, Sun Mengxin 24, Yang Xi 14, Yu Dong 13, Li Mingyang 12, Shen Yi 10) bt Singapore 15. Quarterwise Scores: 35-2, 59-8, 89-12.

Group B

Japan 112 (Yuki Miyazawa 15, Naoko Chikahira 15, Manami Fujioka 11, Evelyn Mawuli 10, Yume Negishi 10, Ryoka Takeda 10) bt Sri Lanka 26. Quarterwise Scores: 38-5, 60-7, 112-26.

Korea 113 (Dajeong Park 19, Kyelee Kang 17, Yujin Jeong 17, Bomul Jeon 13, Hyunji Noh 11) bt Sri Lanka 26 (Jayasinghe Jayakodyarachchilage 12). Quarterwise Scores: 36-8, 62-18, 93-21, 113-26.

Thailand 71 (Thidaporn Maihom 23, Punnida Arjsri 18, Thitima Chalieolerdaumpon 10) bt Kazakhstan 58 (Natalya Popova 13, Marina Petukhova 10). Quarterwise Scores: 18-7, 40-19, 56-31.

S Mageshwaran
FIBA Asia