Hosts’ chances to enter Level-I fade

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Sri Lanka’s chances to qualify for Level-1 faded as poor shooting and rebounds took Sri Lanka to their fourth consecutive defeat, against Kazakhstan.

 

The former suffered a 69-45 loss on the fourth day of the 3rd FIBA Asia Under-16 Basketball Championship for Women, at the Sugthadasa Indoor Stadium, Colombo yesterday.

Sri Lanka was in a good position at the end of the third quarter but shooting and poor rounding seen from them throughout the match led them to the heavy loss. Sri Lanka will be up against Indonesia Wednesday evening and if they lose that match they would end up in the bottom of Level-II category.

Having undergone a coaching camp in Malaysia, Sri Lanka was hoping to qualify for Level-1 in this tournament which will give them a chance to compete for the championship in next year’s tournament but the hosts’ performance was below par giving a bitter experience for the Lankan fans.

Kazakhstan on occasions was under pressure but controlled the game well with Olenberg Karina and Elmira Abikeyeva top-scoring with 19 and 12 points respectively. For the hosts, as Sasanthi Samarasinghe top-scored with 18 and Resuree Wijesundera scored ten points.

Meanwhile in other games, Japan thrashed Korea 83-50, Hong Kong beat Indonesia 38-33, Thailand beat Jordan 87-51, China beat Malaysia 90-28 and Chinese Taipei beat India 105-50.

The 12-nation tournament is organised by the SL Basketball Federation on behalf of the FIBA. The tournament will come to an end with a grand closing ceremony which is scheduled for Saturday evening.