NAGPUR: A day after being humbled by Olympic Games' silver medalist Japan, the young Indian hoopsters gave an improved performance but were left without gas as the game progressed to go down 69-107 against Korea in their second outing of the FIBA women's Asia Cup basketball tournament at Amman, Jordan, on Tuesday.
In what could be a valiant attempt to break the defense of their higher ranked opponents, India made a positive start, but the change of ends turned the things in Korea's favour. The quarter-wise progress favouring Korea read 26-20, 25-15, 33-7, 23-27 as India suffered a 38-point defeat against the world's 19th ranked outfit.
Though India out-rebounded Korea 50-43, they failed in assists (18-42) and steals (5-12). From the handy steals that they made with a pressure defense, Korea went on to score 17 fast break points.
Indian skipper Shireen Limaye led from the front and scored a double with 16 points and 11 rebounds while in form Pushpa Senthil Kumar contributed 12 points and Navaneetha Pattemane landed 12 rebounds and added six points.
Satisfied with the improved performance India's Serbian coach Zoran Visic said, "Today's game was a little bit better than Japan. It was most important to recover and try to give their best and our young players did that against an experienced Korea. We are still here to learn and use that experience in our next game. Tomorrow is a new game and will be a new experience for us."
Skipper Shireen added, "The first half was very good. It was a good beginning for us in this game, but we lacked in the transition on defense. We will take one game at a time and keep on improving."
On Wednesday, the 70th ranked Indian women's team will face world No. 36 New Zealand in their third and final group outing.
RESULT: Korea (Leeseul Kang 18, Hyejin Park 15, Jihyun Park 15) bt India (Shireen Limaye 16, Pushpa Senthil Kumar 12, Sathiya Senthil Kumar 9) 107-69 (26-20, 25-15, 33-7, 23-27)
