South Asian U18 Men's Basketball: India beat Sri Lanka 88-44
South Asian U18 Men's Basketball: India beat Sri Lanka 88-44
Overwhelming favourites and multiple-time reigning defending champions India took care of business against the hosts
Colombo, July 10 2024: Overwhelming favourites and multiple-time reigning defending champions India took care of business against hosts Sri Lanka, in their opening game of the South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Qualifiers for U18 Men.
Playing inside the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium in Sri Lanka’s capital city, the taller Indian team stuck to its strengths - dominating in the paint, whether through points or rebounds.
Clear evidence of the above is in the fact that India’s two top scorers - Mohammad Ishan and Vedansh Ranot - both 6’7” centers - put in near identical double doubles of 20+ points and 10+ rebounds.
India led from the start to the finish, building 10 point leads at the end of every quarter to finish with an impressive 44 point victory margin, scoring twice as many points as the islanders.
As expected for any smaller team, Sri Lanka struggled to score inside, and to make matters worse was unable to either knock down its outside shots nor get out often in transition. It was also guilty of a whopping 31 turnovers which led to a lopsided 42-2 points differential in favour of the visitors.
India next faces Maldives at 4pm on July 11, followed by Bangladesh on July 12. The top team at the end of this Championship will qualify for the FIBA Asia U18 Men’s Championship.
The entire championship is being streamed live on The Papare YouTube Channel.
India (Mohammad Ishan 29 pts, 10 rebs; Vedansh Ranot 27 pts, 12 rebs) bt Sri Lanka (Dhiluk Samarawickrama 14 pts; Eveen Senarathna 12 pts) 88-44 [21-9, 19-13, 21-17, 27-5]
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