Asia U18 Basketball: India through to the knockouts
Asia U18 Basketball: India through to the knockouts
India beat lower ranked Kuwait 62-51 to finish third in its group behind Korea and Iran. The team will now face Lebanon in the pre-quarterfinals.
India took care of business against lower-ranked Kuwait to register its first win of the FIBA U18 Asia Cup 2024 and progress to the pre-quarterfinals.
The 62-51 result meant India finished third in Group B, behind Korea and Iran. The team will now face Group A’s second-placed team Lebanon in the pre-quarterfinals on September 6.
Dominant third quarter
After a neck-and-neck first half where Kuwait kept up its scoring thanks to streaky deep three-pointers and transition buckets, India posted a dominant 22-7 third quarter to put the game beyond Kuwait’s reach.
India’s outside shooting - horrendous against Korea (4/18 i.e. 22.2%) and Iran (3/27 i.e. 11.1%) - finally found its mark against a much weaker opponent.
Against Kuwait, India connected 11 times from beyond the arc to go along with its 19-12 offensive rebounding advantage, which sealed the deal. Exploiting his size advantage, India center Mohammad Ishan rose above the rivals to grab 15 boards.
But overall, in the larger scheme of things, India has been far from impressive this season so far - including in July’s South Asian Basketball Championship. So, if India’s U18 Asia Cup journey continues beyond the pre-quarterfinals, it will have exceeded expectations.
India (Mohammad Ishan 16 reb, Lavish 12 pts, Lokesh Kumar Sharma 12 pts) bt Kuwait (Adam M B A Asadallah 15 pts, Adel F A H Alsaied 16 pts, Talaf F A H Mohammad 12 reb) 62-51 [14-17, 16-15, 22-7, 10-12]