JINAN, China (2nd FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Women): Korea played footsie with India in the initial stages, but took charge of the proceedings early on and rolled on to post a 85-57 win against an enthusiastic, but error-prone India to open the proceedings in Level I competition on Sunday.

Two unanswered sprees of 10 points each marked Korea’s march in the first quarter – at the end of which Hu Man Dug’s girls were ahead by a whopping 25-8 margin – which propelled them forward.

Yang Inyoung and Ruira Lee each reeled in 8 points each – the latter with a perfect 3/3 in field shooting and the former collecting six of her game-high 13 rebounds – in the first quarter as Korea took complete control.

India shot a woeful 14% (3/21) on the field against Korea’s 48% which put things perspective.

Yang went on to finish with the competition’s first double-double – with 14 points – and Lee didn’t play much after that initial burst.

Kim Sion (pic above) came off the bench in the second quarter and led Korea’s scoring with 15 points.

India kept themselves in the game with some brisk offensive plays – especially by Poojamol, who led their scoring with 17 points – but the early deficit proved too large to bridge.

Shireen Limaye, the top rebounder award winner in the inaugural FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Women in Pune two years ago, once looked solid under the board with 13 rebounds. On the offense though, India’s most experienced player – having donned the National colors at the 24th FIBA Asia Championship for Women in Omura this year – fared rather disappointingly with only 9 points.

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