CHENNAI: Thailand earned their first win in four matches when they defeated India 78-67 in a Level-1 match of the 23rd Asian Basketball Championship for women on Monday.
For India, it was their fourth consecutive defeat and will conclude their league engagements Tuesday with a game against Japan who have won two of their four outings.
Regardless of the outcome of their remaining league matches, both India and Thailand will be involved in a play-off against the top two teams from Level-2. The winners of the play-off games will earn the right to play in Level-1 at the next ABC competition.
Japan have won two matches (Chinese Taipei and Thailand) and lost to China and Korea in the first match Monday, while Thailand boasts off a win over India. The home team have thus far lost all their fourth matches.
The only time India were in front against Thailand was at the very start when they took a 4-2 advantage. However, once Thailand players got into their stride, the hosts were always under pressure and in a catch-up mode.
Yet, with Thailand leading 39-32 at half-time, the match looked very much in the balance. However, Thailand managed to score at virtually every opportunity in contrast to the Indians who missed point-scoring opportunities.
In the event, the Thais stayed in front and in the fourth quarter, had the proceedings under their control giving the Indians little leeway to make any effective play.
Indian skipper Geetu Anna Jose did mark her presence by scoring 23 points and showed flashes of brilliance that often caught the Thai defence on the wrong foot. However, with little support forthcoming, Jose played a lone hand in the Indian defeat.
India's best moments were in the third quarter when they matched Thailand point for point as the teams scored 17 apiece.
Earlier, defending champions Korea came up with a late burst to turn back a 35-42 defeat into a 82-68 victory to remain unbeaten in the league after four matches.
Results:
Level-I: Korea 82 (Jung Eun Park 17, Kwe Ryong Kim 16, Jung Eun Kim 15, Yeon Ha Beon 14, Sun Min Jung 13) beat Japan 68 (Yuko Oga 16, Kumiko Yamada 13, Yoshie Sakurada 13),
Thailand 78 (Juthamas jantakan 20, Juthathip Mathuros 16, Charothai Suksomwong 16, Naruemol banmoo 10) beat India 68 (Geethju Anna Jose 23, Prashanthi Singh 16, Anitha Pauldorai 13).
Level-II: Malaysia 81 (Siew Teng Ang 19, beng Fong Goh 11, Suik May Kew 10) beat Sri Lanka 45 (Premila M. Fernando 15, Inoka Sandama Lijuwan Pedige 13, Benica Thalagala 9).
Kazakhstan 75 (Natalya Kuzmicheva 20, Lyudmila Sedova 14, Anastassiya Alishauskaite 13) beat Uzbekistan 70 (Alla Krasovbkaya 14, Irina Polunina 14, Yelena Khusnitedinova 10).
Lebanon 60 (Chada Nasr 16, Chantele Anderson 15, Nayla Alameddine 13) beat Philippines 35 (Chovi Borja 19, Cassandra Tioseco 9).
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