Poonam Chaturvedi poured in a tournament-high 32 points to take to the top of Level II with a 76-67 win against Hong Kong in the 21st FIBA Asia Under-18 Basketball Championship for Women in Johor Bahru, Malaysia on Monday.
India have an off day tomorrow and will wind up their Level II outings on Wednesday against South Asian neighbors Sri Lanka, who lost to Singapore in the other Level II game of the day.
The top two teams will earn a right to the play the Level I qualifying play—offs —— India will now eye and scout the number six team of Level I, in all likelihood Malaysia.
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Chaturvedi, who had played less than 10 minutes in both India’s previous wins put together, started the game and along with Rajapriyadarshini Rajaganapathi added size to the Indian line—up.
Playing the entire 40 minutes, the Chattisgarh girl returned a 16/23 shooting on the paint and dominated the defensive glass with 11 collections.
Jeena Skaria pulled down 15 rebounds and Sharanjeet Kaur had 11 collections in the first triple double of the competition —— with 16 points and as many assists —— as India won the battle of boards by a whopping 62—30 margin.
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Earlier, India beat Singapore 93—53 and Kazakhstan 82—65.