Japan beat India in the 9th-12th place classification match to win 73-64 at the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship held at Manila, Philippines. Japan will now go on to play the 9th place game against Hong Kong, while India will take on Bahrain for 11th spot.
Earlier in the tournament, India failed to qualify for the quarter-finals after they lost all three of their matches in the second round to Kazakhstan, Iran and Korea. They won a solitary game against Thailand in the first round. Interestingly, India lost their first game of the tournament to Bahrain 82-80 in overtime.
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India was clearly the bigger of the two teams, and out-rebounded Japan as they led by nine points at the end of the first quarter.
India continued their form into the second quarter as they led by 12 points at the half-time buzzer. India’s top scorers in the tournament Narender Kumar Grewal and Vishesh Bhriguvanshi barely scored in the first half, but Joginder Singh and Yadwinder Singh (nine points each) did well for India by the end of the second quarter.
The third quarter was a much closer affair as Japan clawed their way back into the game to reduce the deficit to only four points, with the scoreline reading 50-54. India were guilty of many turnovers and missed quite a few shots, which enabled Japan to erase the double-digit lead.
Japan turned the game around in the final quarter as they dominated the Indians and took the lead for the first time in the game at 61-59. The disillusioned Indian team never looked likely to win after that as Japan scored another three-pointer to extend their lead to 5 points.
Japan continued to dominate the final quarter as they won the game with a final scoreline of 73-64.
India’s top scorers were Vishesh Bhriguvanshi (12), Rikin Pethani (11), while Japan’s top scorers were Naoto Tsuji (12), Kosuke Takeuchi (12), Makoto Hiejima, J Sakuragi and Atsuya Ota (10 each).
