Indian Women fall to Chinese Taipei in opening game of FIBA Asia Championship

Wuhan, China, 29 August 2015: In their opening game of the 26^th FIBA Asia Women’s Championship 2015, the Indian Senior Women’s team suffered a blowout 92-61 loss against Chinese Taipei in their Group A fixture on Day 1 of the tournament at Wuhan, China.

Chinese Taipei, who finished fourth in the 2013 version of the tournament, was the clear favourite entering this game. Facing an uphill task, India had a faulty start with their opponent storming out of the gates with an 8-0 start. India did manage to stem the flow ending the first quarter down 11 to 22. The second quarter was India’s best of the game. Managing to match Chinese Taipei shot-for-shot, the second quarter scoring was almost even between the teams.

Entering the second half with a 12-point lead, Chinese Taipei further extended the gap between the teams outscoring India 29 to 18 in the third quarter. Chinese Taipei’s Y. Wei led the scoring with 20 points, while S. Peng and Y. Lin contributed with 12 and 11 points respectively. In the fourth quarter, Chinese Taipei continued to drain buckets with ease, thus maintaining their huge lead and cruising to an easy victory.

Poojamol Subhashmon, from Kerala, led India in scoring ending the game with 17 points while Bhandavya HM, India';s youngest player at 17 years old, played confidently, although out of position at point guard, to score 8 points. Smruthi Radhakrishnan added 3 assists, while Shireen Limaye led the team in rebounding pulling down 7 rebounds.

India’s young and largely inexperienced side failed to maintain their composure on the big stage and turned the ball over a massive 33 times. Clearly, the team missed starting point guard, Kavita Akula, who was made unavailable for the event due to her college career starting in the U.S.

Coach Garcia will need to ensure that his players take better care of the ball going forward in the tournament. “We competed quite well for around 25 minutes of the game against one of the top 4 teams. Then, our lack of stamina brought us down. Obviously, we missed the services of our starting point guard Kavita Akula. But I must say that we competed better against them than we did in Bangkok [in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship],” said Coach Garcia, after the game.  

Their next opponent will be Japan, who they will face tomorrow.

Chinese Taipei (Y. Wei 20, S. Peng 12, Y. Lin 11) bt India (Poojamol Subhashmon 17, Anitha Paul Durai 8, B. Mahesha 8, J. Skaria 8) 92-61 (22-11, 15-14, 29-18, 26-18)

For the full box score, please access the following link: http://www.fiba.com/ls/#8061&11894-A-1.  

UPCOMING INDIA TEAM GROUP A SCHEDULE FOR 26^TH FIBA ASIA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP 2015

S. No.	Match	Day and Date	Local Time in Wuhan, China	Indian Standard Time
1.	India v. Japan	Sunday, 30 August 2015	3:00 p.m.	12:30 p.m.
2.	India v. China	Monday, 31 August 2015	5:00 p.m.	2:30 p.m.
3.	India v. Thailand	Tuesday, 1 September 2015	12:30 p.m.	10:00 a.m.
4.	India v. Korea	Wednesday, 2 September 2015	12:30 p.m.	10:00 a.m.

INDIAN SQUAD FOR THE 26^TH FIBA ASIA WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP 2015

Jersey No	Family Name(s) /Last Name	First Name(s) /Given Name	Date of Birth (dd/mm/yyyy)	Place of Birth (City & Country)		Height (cm)	Weight (Kg)	Position
04	PRASANNAN GEETHA	Anjana	09/11/1994	Kollam	India	177	56	G/F
06		Stephy Nixon	06/06/1992	Chalakudy	India	184	79	C
08	KOCHUPARAMBU SUBHASHMON	Poojamol	14/08/1996	Kottayam	India	174	64	G/F
10	RADHAKRISHNAN	Smruthi	15/04/1992	Thaliyil	India	175	68	F
13	PALANILKUMKALAYIL SKARIA	Jeena	09/01/1994	Kalpatta	India	179	64	F
14	LIMAYE	Shireen Vijay	13/12/1995	Pune	India	178	69	F
18	HEMMIGE MAHESHA	Bhandavya	18/04/1998	Mandya	India	163	53	G/F
22	MURALINATH	Apporva	02/02/1989	Chennai	India	180	68	F
33	RAJAGANAPATHI	Rajapriyadharshini	03/01/1994	Salem	India	189	72	PF/C
77	PAUL DURAI	Anitha	22/06/1985	Chennai	India	168	66	G
88	TUDU	Sitamani	04/10/1994	Bahalda	India	169	58	G/F

*PG - Point Guard / Feeder, G - Guard, F - Forward, G/F - Wing, PF - Power Forward, C - Centre, PF/C - Pivot

13. Team Manager: Mr. Rajendar Manthani           

14. Team Physio: Mr. Radha Krishna Reddy

15. Coach: Mr. Francisco Garcia

16. Assistant Coach: Ms. Aparna Ghosh

17.  Referee: Ms. Snehal Bendke

18. Referee: Mr. Rajnarayan Patro

About the FIBA Asia Women’s Championship 2015 & India’s Participation

Tournament Format

This will be the 26^th edition of the Asian Women’s Basketball Championship. 12 teams are expected participate in this championship and are divided into two Levels. Level 1 features the top six teams, while level 2 features the remaining six. League matches are conducted within each level and the two bottom placed teams from Level 1 play ‘qualifying matches’ against the two top placed teams from Level 2. The winning teams from these ‘qualifying matches’ qualify to Level 1 for the next edition of this event while the losing two teams are relegated to Level 2.

Simultaneously, the top four Level 1 teams go through to the semi-finals, followed by the finals. A bronze medal match is also played between the losing semi-finalists to determine the third and fourth placed teams. The winning team qualifies for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While the second and third placed teams go through to the 2016 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Tournament history

Prior to the upcoming iteration, 25 editions of this biennial championship have been held so far, dating back to 1965. South Korea won the inaugural edition and leads the gold medal tally overall (12 Golds), followed by China (11 Golds) and Japan (2 Golds). India first participated at this event in 1970, and has competed 16 times in total. The Indian women’s team best finish came at the last edition of this Championship in 2013, when we finished 5^th. Prior to that, India’s best finish had been 6^th place at the 1992, 2009 and 2011 iterations.