The FIBA Asia Cup & THE GAME
The Indian National Team recently returned from Wuhan, China where we competed in the FIBA Asia Cup. Prior to the tournament we had our exposure trip canceled the day before we were to leave. We were scheduled to play three exhibition games against pro teams in China. Needless to say we were not as prepared as the other teams that had played many games before arriving in Wuhan. It showed in our first game with Japan. We were not sharp and were beaten handily. Our next game was against the home team, China, ranked No. 1 in Asia and 12th in the world. What was about to take place I am sure no one would have expected. We started the game strong behind our tough half court defense. We got an early lead but China closed the gap by halftime. It was back and forth in the second half with China leading going into the 4th quarter. We stayed close and in the last few minutes of the game Pratham Singh hit several clutch 3 point shots and and we executed a timely alley-oop dunk play for Amjyot Singh to gain momentum. In the end we pulled off the historic victory 65-58. This was India's first win over China in the 85 year history of India basketball. The support of India basketball fans has been overwhelming. There is a great article written by Karan Madhok speaking to the impact of this victory on the past and future of India basketball. https://hoopistani.blogspot.in/2014/07/wonder-of-wuhan-india-should-build-on.html
We went on to win 2 more games. Gaining confidence from our China win we played the top teams in Asia (Iran, Philippines, Jordan) right to the end but came up short. Hopefully this experience will help us to gain even more victories in the future.
