India lose to S Korea

New Delhi, Nov 9: A huge gap in shooting skills made the difference as defending champions South Korea humbled India 93-64 in the semi-fina...

New Delhi, Nov 9: A huge gap in shooting skills made the difference as defending champions South Korea humbled India 93-64 in the semi-finals of the Asian School Basketball Championships at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium here today.

Korean sharp-shooter Jim Kyong Suk sunk in four three-pointers in the initial moments and India were left fighting a lost cause. The Korean adeptness at long rangers resulted in 15 three-pointers today.

In the other semifinal, the short statured but big hearted Filipinos stunned the Chinese 74-68 in a display of gritty zonal defence. Meanwhile, Malaysia thrashed the winless Sri Lanka 83-39.

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The Indians stuck to their favourite zonal defence even when the Koreans kept plugging away through long rangers. Besides, the fitter, sturdier Koreans had no trouble intercepting passes whenever the hosts went on the attack.

Play-maker captain Man Singh, who stole the show in yesterday’s match against China, was marked well in the initial minutes, and the hosts resorted to long range shooting without success. Mohit Bhandari was off target and kept finding the rim of the net. Coach S Subramaniam tried Ranjeet and then Vinay Kumar, but it was obvious that they lacked big match temperament.

Scores: (SF): Korea 93 Jim Kyong Suk 18, Lee Sang Hoon 13, Jung Sung Kyo 11) bt India 64 (Man Singh 21, S Robinson 17, S Prasad 10); Philippines 74 bt China 68

Relegation matches: Malaysia 83 bt Sri Lanka 39