U18 Asia Cup 5-8 Classification Game: India lose to Iran 59-73

Playing against a familiar group phase opponent there was a strong sense of deja vu as India kept it close in the first half, only to allow the game to slip away in the second.

Playing against familiar group phase opponent Iran, this time in the 5-8 Classification game, there was a strong sense of deja vu as India kept it close in the first half, only to allow the contest to slip away in the second.

India captain Lavish, who makes it a point to admirably shoulder ball-handling responsibilities against the speediest defenders, found the going extremely tough against counterpart Arian Edalatfar, turning the ball over a whopping 11 times.

India captain Lavish struggled against rival point guard Arian Edalatfar, conceding 11 turnovers. Image credit - FIBA.com

Overall, India conceded 25 giveaways to undo the positives of a relatively higher field goal percentage (40.38% against Iran’s 33.33%), including a best-so-far 37.5% from beyond the arc.

While Iran maintained its level of intensity through all four quarters, India appeared gassed in the second, leading one to wonder why Head Coach Scott Flemming doesn’t seem to trust the entirety of his bench to reprieve the starters. For example, two Indian players: 6ft 6” power forward Abhimanyu Govindarajan from Tamil Nadu and 5ft 10’’ shooting guard Rohan Shejwal from Madhya Pradesh haven’t seen any playing time in five straight games. Even among these two, it was only Govindarajan who played a mere 3 minutes in the first game against Korea, going scoreless.

The streaky point guard Mirthun Vel Dhanasekar had his best scoring game of the tournament, with 18 points, including 3/5 (60%) from beyond the arc. Image credit - FIBA.com.

India’s final 7-8 Classification game will be against Japan on September 9.

India (Mirthun Vel Dhanasekar 18 pts; Lavish 15 pts, 11 turnovers) lose to Iran (Arian Edalatfar 17 pts, 7 stl; Mardin Mansouri 15 pts) 59-73 [21-20, 11-18, 16-19, 11-16]

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