India beat Sri Lanka, qualify for Asian Basketball Championship
July 15th, 2011 - 11:39 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, July 15 (IANS) India defeated Sri Lanka 89-35 in the final of the Middle Asia Zone qualifying event at the Thyagaraj Stadium here Friday to secure their berth for the Asian Basketball Championship in September.
The convincing win shows promise for Indian basketball under their new head coach Kenny Natt, who took charge only a month ago.
The home team continued with their defence-centric game in the tournament and got the better of the Lankans for the second time in a row. India had beaten them in their only group match Wednesday.
Five players scored in double digits for India including Hareesh Koroth, who was the top-scorer with 12 points. Praneeth earned almost half of the points for Sri Lanka scoring 17.
With the defence-oriented game, India shared the ball extremely well to dominate their opponents. The hosts only allowed Sri Lanka to score one field goal in the first quarter as they raced off to a 25-2 lead. A telling point of the match was India scoring 60 percent of their points through the field.
An Indian win seemed inevitable when they led the match 51-11 at half time.
India, however, have a much tougher task ahead in the 16-nation Asian Championship in Wuhan, China Sep 15-25. The 50th ranked team in the world is drawn with higher-ranked Lebanon, Korea, and Malaysia in their group.
Earlier in the day, Nepal won a close match Bangladesh 73-62 to finish third in the competition.
- India beat Bangladesh, enter Asian basketball qualifying event final - Jul 14, 2011
- West Indies eves see no surprises from Sri Lanka - Apr 24, 2012
- Jayram to lead Indian basketball team - Jul 28, 2009
- England set Sri Lanka 230-run target - Mar 26, 2011
- Kohli starts series as highest-ranked batsman - Feb 04, 2012
- India may slip to fourth spot in ICC Test rankings - Mar 30, 2012
- Younus Khan moves up on rankings ladder - Dec 13, 2011
- Daley shines again as West Indies win T20 opener - May 02, 2012
- Asian Junior TT: India's U-18 boys win thriller against Chinese Taipei, enter semis - Jul 22, 2011
- Australia goes ahead of India in Test rankings - Apr 29, 2012
- New Zealand all out for 217 against Sri Lanka - Mar 29, 2011
- Australia edge Sri Lanka by five runs - Feb 10, 2012
- Big field for Indian Junior Open squash - Sep 05, 2011
- Asian Games rugby: Indian ruggers continue to struggle - Nov 22, 2010
- Dilshan, Tendulkar and Gambhir all rise in ICC rankings - Apr 04, 2011
Tags: asia zone, asian basketball championship, asian championship, berth, close match, double digits, field goal, first quarter, head coach, indian basketball, kenny natt, middle asia, New Delhi, opponents, ranked team, score one, second time, time india, top scorer, wuhan china