India wins silver at Asian Games basketball test event

Jakarta: The Indian men’s team bagged the silver medal at the Asian Games 5×5 basketball test event here.

The India side went down fighting 68-78 to hosts Indonesia at the Istora Sanayan Hall, Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex to finish runners-up in the invitational tournament.

The hosts thus avenged their loss against their opponents a few days back, which was India’s first victory of the tournament.

Considering that India started their campaign with a 72-79 loss against Thailand, the second-place finish could be considered a creditable one.

The first quarter of the game saw both the teams competing neck and neck but Indonesia took a single point lead over India. The hosts increased the lead even further in the next two quarters, making it 58-45.

India fought hard in the fourth quarter to bounce back but it was not enough as Indonesia kept on scoring at regular intervals.

Indian forward Aravind Annadurai led all the scorers in the game with 25 points, whereas veterans Joginder Singh and Yadwinder Singh chipped in with 15 and 13 points respectively.

Andakara Prastawa led the Indonesian team with 18 points.