NAGPUR: Indian hoopsters had mixed luck in their 3x3 basketball tournament opener at the Asian Games on Monday. While the men's outfit started their campaign with a stunning four-point (20-16) win over higher ranked Malaysia, Indian women lost their opening tie to lower ranked Uzbekistan 14-19 at the Deqing Information Park courts.
In the men's section, fast rising forward Sahaij Sekhon did the bulk of the scoring as the 60th ranked India surprised world no. 41 Malaysia in the round robin pool C league game. While Sekhon scored a game-high 10 points, India's top prospect for the NBA Princepal Singh chipped in with six points as Pranav Prince and Lokendra Singh netted identical two points.
After Malaysia opened the scoring, India brought parity before Sekhon made back-to-back two pointers in the third minute to seize the advantage. At the halfway mark of the game, India took a handy four-point (13-9) lead and maintained the same till the final whistle.
On their way to upset higher ranked Malaysia, India maintained a better ratio of possessions 43-34, they committed fewer fouls and pulled more rebounds 22-12. While the Malaysian team took more two-point attempts, Indian cagers were focused on scoring from the paint.
In contrast, the 55th ranked Indian women's team missed many attempts and failed to clear the Uzbekistan test in their Asian Games opener. Both the teams were almost at par in possessions, but India's poor conversion ratio proved critical as the 60th ranked Uzbekistan outfit cruised to a five-point (19-14) win.
In a chat with TOI, experienced Indian cager Vaishnavi Yadav, who scored a game-high nine points, said, "It was our first appearance in Asiad, and it was a bit of tough luck for us on shooting today. We will work hard on our defence and in our next game on Wednesday, we will be better both offensively and defensively."
On her debut for the country, Siya Deodhar, who netted four points, said, "We were ready and all set for the game, but it was a bad shooting day. All four of us are good shooters but the bad day happened today, and our conversion ratio was poor. We will come up with a better game plan in our important game against China."
Farangiz Jalilova and Anastasiya Tsoy netted identical eight points for Uzbekistan.
Indian women were focused on scoring two-pointers. Of the 20 attempts India took they missed 17 and Uzbekistan drove 24 times while making 12 to snatch the crucial win.
