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The courageous run of the Indian men’s basketball team ended earlier today with a loss to hosts China in the quarterfinals of the 28th FIBA Asia Championship 2015 in Changsha.
Returning to the knockout stage after a gap of 12 years, the Young Cagers showed glimpses of their class and ability to go toe to toe against one of the top sides in the continent. The last time the two teams faced each other during the 5th FIBA Asia Cup in 2014, India had stunned their opponents 65-58. Tonight, India led in the initial few minutes before China turned on its jets, led mainly by former NBA centre Yi Jianlian.
For India, overall tournament top scorer Amjyot Singh was aggressively man marked, so small forward Yadwinder Singh and Captain Vishesh Bhriguvanshi took up most of the scoring load. While India’s run in the main competition has ended, the side has two key classification games to look forward to, starting with the first one against Korea tomorrow (time TBD). An upset win over the Koreans will allow India to at least secure 6th place, its best ever tournament ranking since 1989.
India (Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 22 pts & 5 asts, Yadwinder Singh 16 pts) lost to China (Yi Jianlian 21 pts, Xiaochuan Zhai 15 pts, Peng Zhou 13 pts) 58-104 [15-27, 14-29, 11-19, 18-29]
