NAGPUR: Indian girls had a nervous start to their first World Cup in the 89 years' history of basketball in the country. In their first game of the FIBA 3x3 U-18 World Cup, which began in Debrecen, Hungary, on Monday, the four-member Indian girls' team lost their tournament opener to higher ranked Japan 21-12 with 12 seconds remaining on the clock.
The team scoring 21 points first, or the best finisher in 10 minutes wins a 3x3 contest, which is played on one ring and only half the court.
India failed to take advantage of their size, and took almost two minutes to open their scoring. Though India came close twice in the game, the girls donning blue came under foul trouble and it became easy for World No.12 Japan to register a facile nine-point victory.
Though Japan were not at their scoring best in the initial stage of the tie, the 50th ranked Indian girls played a bit passively and allowed their opponents to warm up and score a handful of second chance baskets.
With 6.41 minutes remaining, India's shooting guard Gunjan Mantri scored the only two-pointer for her team and brought scores nearly at par 6-7. Then she committed a couple of travelling violations and Japan stretched the lead further to three points (9-6).
Indian skipper Aanaya Bhavsar and Gujarat's Aahana George netted a basket each as India again came close at 8-10 with just over five minutes remaining. A timely strategic break came handy for Japan as within a minute they stretched the lead further to 15-8 and never looked back from then, and went on to register an easy victory.
For Japan, Yuna Abe scored with six points, India's Aahana George netted five points as Gunjan and Aanaya chipped in with three points each.
India will next face China in their second league game.
