Asia Cup Women: Japan teaches India basketball lesson

The 2021 FIBA Asia Cup Women's Championship tipped off with India losing 46-136 to the reigning Olympic silver medalists Japan.

Thanks to her near double-double, Pushpa Senthil Kumar was the lone bright spot for India against Japan. Image credits: FIBA.com

Barring the opening 1:11 mins, powerhouse Japan - which has won the last four consecutive Asian Championships - kept building its lead. A 41-11 opening frame put the game out of India's grasp right away.

Asia Cup Women: Japan proves its class

The World #8 ranked Japan's vaunted game strategy - high on-ball pressure, lightning-quick transition offense, razor-sharp passing in half-court and pinpoint outside shooting - were all on display, against the #70 ranked India.

India turned the ball over a whopping 33 times, with starting point guard Nishanthi Masilamani responsible for eight giveaways. Overall, India's sloppiness resulted in a lopsided 61-5 points from turnovers for Japan. Japan's 18 steals contributed to 36 fast-break points (India had only eight points in this department), and its bench too made merry, scoring 76 points (compared to just 14 by India).

https://twitter.com/EkBballIndia/status/1442412265240555520

*The FIBA Asia Cup Women’s Championship will be held between 27th September – 3rd October in Amman, Jordan. The games are expected to be live-streamed on the LiveBasketball.tv app and on FIBA Youtube Channel. 

***

If you’ve come this far…

Appeal to our readers: Ekalavyas is India’s first and only basketball media company. We are not foreign-funded, nor investor-backed. Your support and encouragement have got us this far. We now need your financial assistance to ensure we can keep providing you timely, accurate and important information. Please contribute via https://www.instamojo.com/@ekalavyas​ 🙏🏾. We are accepting contributions as low as Rs. 9/- (excluding a small processing fee charged by the payment gateway provider). Thank you for playing a part in keeping media independent and objective!

Ekalavyas now on Clubhouse! Join us for live audio conversations by following the ‘Sports India Basketball‘ Club.

Ekalavyas now on Telegram! Stay up-to-date on all the breaking news around Indian Basketball, by subscribing to the EkBallIndia Telegram Channel.