Bengaluru, July 4 (IANS) India and Sri Lanka stayed on course for a possible title-deciding clash by remaining unbeaten in the fourth South Asian Basketball Association’s Asian Championship qualifying tournament here on Saturday.
While defending champions India drubbed Bhutan 119-52 for their third straight win, Sri Lanka who are expected to be the home team’s only serious challengers, romped to a 92-66 win over Maldives to register their second success, and are scheduled to play Maldives Saturday evening.
As in their previous two matches Friday, the Indians proved just too good for their opponents though Bhutan showed some fight after managing just six points in the first quarter.
Bhutan did well to keep pace with India in the second quarter that was shared 20-20 before the hosts, leading 59-26 at half-time, upped their game on resumption to crush their rivals.
Starring in the Indian win was young Gurvinder Singh Gill who tallied 20 points, followed by Karnataka’s Aravind (19) and Joginder Singh Saharan (12) who also had 10 assists to his credit.
India are scheduled to play their remaining two matches Sunday when they take on Maldives in the morning and Sri Lanka in the tournament’s last match in the evening.
In the other match of the morning session, Nepal edged past Bangladesh 87-74 for their second win in three outings thus far, having beaten Bhutan 72-58 late Friday night after losing to India in their opening fixture.
The results:
Morning session: Sri Lanka 92 (Praneeth Udumalagala 28, Chamath 11, Roshan Fernando 11) bt Maldives 66 (Ahmed Aushan 16, Mohamed Zilal 13). HT: 36-29.
Nepal 87 (Sadish Pradhan 17, Ashin Shrestha 14) bt Bangladesh 74 (Mithun kumar 24, Mithun Sarkan 22). HT: 37-29.
India 119 (Gurvinder Singh Gill 20, A. Arvind 19, Joginder Singh Saharan 12) bt Bhutan 52 (Rinchen Dorji 14). HT: 59-26.
Friday night: Nepal 72 (Ashim 18, Bikram Joshi 12) bt Bhutan 58 (Wangchuk 17, Karma Singye 10). HT: 26-28.