Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Indian boys edge out Latin America in overtime; Indian girls fall short in first game

ORLANDO (USA), AUG 7
Late on Tuesday (IST), the second Jr. NBA Global Championship tipped off at the at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando.
On Day 1 of Pool play  both the Indian teams played one game each. Both the Indian squads were pooled alongside teams from Latin American, Africa, and Europe and Middle-East.
Among the Indian teams, the boys were the first to take the court.
Going up against the boys from Latin America, it was a tough battle and it did require an overtime period but the Indian lads eventually came out on top.By outscoring their counterparts 14-8 in the extra four minutes, the boys clinched a 73-67 win.
Dagar finished with an all-round stat line with 7 steals, 6 rebounds and 3 assists to go along with his 26 points. On the other hand, Lokendra Singh ensured his 28 points were efficient, making nine of his 16 shot attempts, while also recording 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists, and 2 blocks.
Apart from the high-scoring guard duo, other key contributors in the win were Kushal Singh (11 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals) and Janmejay Singh (9 rebounds, 3 points, and 3 blocks).
The Singh trio of Kushal, Janmejay, and Lokendra played all 36 minutes of the game (four eight-minute quarters and a four-minute overtime period).
The boys shot marginally better than their opponents (42.6% > 39.0%). The biggest difference between both teams were the turnovers recorded by the Latin America squad.
The Indian boys registered 16 steals, in comparison to six by their opponents, which played a huge role in the Latin America squad recording 22 turnovers to India's 12.
For the girls, Muskan Singh top-scored with 13 points and Manmeet Kaur pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds but they came up short against the team from Latin American, losing 21-54.
Today  the Indian boys have a two-game slate ahead of them. They compete against Africa at 11 PM IST (Aug. 7), then they take on the team from Europe and the Middle East at 5:00 AM (Aug. 8).
Just like the boys, the girls have two games to prepare for on Day 2. They face-off against the Africa squad at 9:30 PM IST (Aug 7) and then take the court against Europe & Middle East at 3:30 AM IST (Aug. 8).
====balbirsingh227@gmail.com

No comments: