Indian U-16 girls basketball team suffers another loss

The Indian girls' basketball team suffered their fourth consecutive loss at the fourth Asia Under-16 Championship when they went down to Thailand 58-90 here on Wednesday.

The match began positively with India leading 12-11 at the end of the first quarter. But soon the match turned completely on its head. Thailand turned on their jets in the second quarter to take a huge 44-24 lead at halftime.

India forwards Sushantika Chakravortty and Shrishti Suren battled hard in the front court, pulling down rebounds and scoring in the paint. Fighting to come back, India matched Thailand almost shot for shot in the third period but another low scoring fourth quarter meant that Thailand had surged to a 90-58 win.

India, who had earlier lost to South Korea, Japan and China, will next take on Chinese Taipei on Thursday in what will be their final league match. Now, there is only a remote mathematical possibility of India avoiding being sent to play qualifying matches to stay in Level 1.

India need to win against Chinese Taipei by a sizeable margin while simultaneously hoping that Thailand is comprehensively beaten by China.

If India does finish in the bottom two of Level 1, they will most likely face either Hong Kong or Indonesia in a qualifying match on August 8. This will be a must-win game that will decide whether India stay in Level 1 for the next edition of the Asia Championship.