Asia Cup Basketball: Jordan battle past India in overtime

Nagpur: Young Indian cagers nearly wielded the dreaded upset axe on world No. 35 Jordan, stretching them to overtime but missing the finishing touches to go down fighting in their Asia Cup opener in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday.Placed in a tricky group in Asia’s top 16 teams’ men’s basketball tournament, the 76th ranked Indian hoopsters fought bravely but went down 84-91 to Jordan after both teams scored 80 points at the final hooter.

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In the five-minute overtime, Jordan rode on experience to get the better of India by seven points (11-4). A determined-looking Indian team, with a handful of youngsters, kick-started their campaign with a close defeat but will be confident enough when they face mighty China and hosts Saudi Arabia in their next league games.In their tournament opener, India were almost on the verge of creating an upset over Jordan when they took a four-point advantage (80-76) with 52 seconds remaining for the final whistle. Jordan’s experienced 6-foot-3 forward Hashem Abbas fired back-to-back baskets to bring parity — 80-80 — and stretch the game to overtime.For starters, Jordan took an early lead by winning the first period 18-14. In the second quarter, India recorded a 9-0 scoring run to win the same 24-20 and brought parity 38-38 at the lemon break.

After the change of ends, Jordan again took the lead by winning the third quarter 22-17. The determined-looking Indian cagers fought bravely for nine minutes of the last quarter to win 25-20 and level the scores at 80-80.

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ver-excitement in the last minute of the regulation period proved costly for India as they missed a couple of attempts while making defensive lapses to allow Jordan to stretch the game to overtime.Jordan’s seasoned point guard and US import Dar Tucker fired a game-high 30 points as Abbas chipped in with 24 points. For India, 11 of the 12 members recorded their names on the scoresheet with Arvind Muthu Krishnan (14), Harsh Dagar (12), Pranav Prince (12), Pratyanshu Tomar (11), and Muin Bek Hafeez (10) scoring in double digits.Though India were outrebounded 40-48, the 21 offensive rebounds that Jordan snatched gave them 19 second-chance points.

The battle of equals saw India committing 29 fouls as against just 14 by Jordan, which eventually proved decisive as the 35th ranked outfit scored 25 of their 42 free throw attempts.Speaking with TOI, India’s American head coach Scott Flemming said, “We competed well yet struggled for most of the game with foul trouble. Dar Tucker, their US player, was a tough matchup for us. We had a great chance to win in regulation and made some mental mistakes to put it into overtime.

We are a young team and have not had much of a chance to play in game situations recently.”Flemming added, “It was a tough loss. Every loss makes us learn and if we execute some things, I am pretty sure we can compete. In the coming days, we will do our best to play better.”India’s top performer Arvind Muthu Krishnan said, “We lost the game because of offensive rebounds they snatched in the initial two quarters. We corrected our mistakes in the second half.”RESULT: Jordan (Dar Tucker 30, Hashem Abbas 24, Freddy Ibrahim 14) bt India (Arvind Muthu Krishnan 14, Harsh Dagar 12, Pranav Prince 12, Pratyanshu Tomar 11, Muin Bek Hafeez 10) 91-84 (18-14, 20-24, 22-17, 20-25, OT 11-4).