India pummelled a hapless Guam 107-42 on the second day of the FIBA U-18 women’s Asian Championship at the Sree Kanteerava Indoor Stadium here on Monday.
Guam stood no chance. Instead of 12 players, its roster had just eight and one among it, Maria Taitano, was walking around on crutches because of a knee injury.
Their short stature — average height of 5 foot 5 inches — meant they played catch up throughout.
They won all of two second chance points in the entire match. India bagged 23.
It was no surprise then that the host was ahead 28-9 by the end of the first quarter.
Guam’s point-guard Alana Salas did manage two fine three-pointers which met with loud cheers from the sparse crowd. But they didn’t hurt one bit.
The second quarter similarly saw little resistance from Guam. Forward Srishti Suren often drove to the paint with ease and India stretched the lead to 50-22.
After half-time, it was the turn of Sreekala Rani and Dharshini Thirunavukkarasu to make merry as India went on 20-point scoring run which effectively flattened Guam.
All get on scoring sheet
Every Indian player scored. Six among them accounted for double-digit points, with Srishti (19 points and nine rebounds) and Dharshini (15 points and nine rebounds) the stand-out performers.
“We had no expectations,” said Guam coach Jimmy Yi. “We just came to have fun and results don’t matter. We did have a squad of 12 but four couldn’t make it here as they had to attend school. We are here just for the experience.”
Earlier, in Division A, while Australia, Korea and Japan waltzed past their opponents, New Zealand, for the second day running, ran its adversary close. It kept pace with four-time defending champion China for nearly three quarters before falling away in the fourth and losing 67-58.
The results: Division A: Group A: Australia 106 bt Chinese Taipei 66; Korea 84 bt Indonesia 40; Group B: China 67 bt New Zealand 58; Japan 130 bt Malaysia 31.
Division B: Group A: India 107 (Srishti Suren 19, Dharshini 15, Ishwarya Janardhanan 11, Sreekala Rani 10, Ann Mary Zachariah 10, Achuta Sreeramaneni 10 bt Guam 42 (Elysia Perez 12); Iran 70 bt Singapore 53; Group B: Kazakhstan 67 bt Samoa 51; Syria 66 bt Hong Kong 47 .
