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New Delhi (3 August 2015): Close on the heels of their opening loss to Korea yesterday, India fell to another higher ranked Level 1 team Japan on Day two of the 4th FIBA Asia U-16 Championship for Women that is underway in Medan, Indonesia.
In a repeat performance of sorts, high rate of turnovers proved to be the bane yet again for the young Indian side. Rutuja Pawar top scored for India with 12 points. Japan fully utilised its deep bench with 11 out of 12 players on the court for a minimum of 10 minutes. India (ranked 39th in the world) did well in the first quarter to stay within single digits of Japan (ranked 9), but it was only a matter of time before Japan clamped down on the defensive end to restrict India’s scoring. Their defense in turn led to easy offense with seven Japanese players scoring in double digits.
India will next face another top 10 opponent China (ranked 8th in the world) tomorrow at 3:30 pm IST, before going up against lower ranked Thailand, followed by Chinese Taipei.
Japan (Rina Kajiwara 16, Itsuki Hashiguchi 16, Mako Fujimoto 15, Haruki Takahara 14 pts & 10 rbs) bt India (Rutuja Pawar 12)113-39 [24-15, 27-10, 25-7, 37-7]
