In an exciting final day at the FIBA U-16 Womens Asian Championship, India topped Malaysia to become the champions of division B.
The Indian U-16 women's basketball team have now been elevated to Division A.
The division B finals started with a dry stretch for both the teams. Three minutes into the game Indian captain Sanjana Ramesh scored the first point of the contest with a free throw.
The rest of the team slowly picked up the pace with forward Vaishnavi Yadav's quick steals and centre Pushpa Senthil Kumar's impressive finishing under the basket.
The first quarter ended at India leading Malaysia 15-3. The second quarter opened with a deep three-pointer from Vaishnavi and a buzzer beating three from Sanjana.
Malaysia came back into the game with two strong back to back fast break baskets with the help of their defence. They made the game more competitive by reducing the lead to just 8 points at the end of the 2nd quarter and outscored India 21-17 in the 2nd quarter.
Malaysia opened the second half with seven quick points cutting the deficit to just three points.
India replied with six quick points of their own initiated by a great defensive play from Vaishnavi and two great finishes from Monica Jayakumar and Rani Sreekal. A great block from Sanjana and a transition three pointer from Vaishnavi took the game back to a 13 point India lead.
The third quarter ended with India leading with 18 points. The fourth quarter opened up with Vaishnavi getting her sixth steal of the game, and Sanjana registering two blocks on back to back plays.
The lead kept on growing in India's favour and the game finally ended with a buzzer beater turnaround jump shot from centre Asmat Taunque.
--IANS
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