India beats spirited Sri Lanka to secure spot in U18 Men's Asia Cup
In the finals of the South Asian Basketball Championship, favourites India triumphed over the hosts 87-62, after the scores being tied 43 at half time.
Colombo, July 13 2024: After a pulsating first half where the scores were tied, defending champions India pulled away in a decisive third quarter to secure South Asia’s sole berth in the FIBA U18 Men’s Asia Cup 2024.
Hosts Sri Lanka played out of their skin in the first twenty minutes, making up for their lack of size with phenomenal energy and aggression. Led by their burly captain Methika Jayasinghe, Sri Lanka did an excellent job of keeping India’s bigs out of the paint, and force India’s offense to be run by its guards - Lavish and Mirthun Vel Dhanasekar.
Lavish, the experienced captain of the Indian team - who had also led India’s U16 side last year - kept India’s flag flying in the testy first half.
Going into the final twenty minutes, both teams were locked at 43-43.
Bouyed by competing in front of a well attended crowd at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium, the question was whether the Sri Lankan players would be able to maintain their heightened level of a play through the entire forty minutes.
Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, Jayasinghe’s foul trouble forced him to the bench in the third quarter, which opened the scoring gates for India’s star centre Mohammad Ishan.
After a quiet first half, the 6ft 7’’ Ishan, who has clearly been India’s player of the tournament, took over the game, finishing with a monster double double of 22 points and 20 rebounds.
As winners of the sub-zonal qualifiers, India will now compete in the continental championship to be held in Jordan later this September.
Earlier in the evening, Maldives beat Bangladesh in the 3rd-4th place game to secure its first SABA (South Asian Basketball Association) medal at the U18 level.
India (Mohammad Ishan 22 pts, 20 reb; Lavish 19 pts; Mirthun Vel Dhanasekar 19 pts; Vedansh Ranot 11 reb) bt Sri Lanka (Eveen Senarathna 13 pts; Anthony Bernard 13 pts; Methika Jayasinghe 10 pts) 87-62 [19-16, 24-27, 20-7, 24-12]
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