JINAN, China (2nd FIBA Asia U16 Championship for Women): Shireen Limaye finally struck form and returned a double-double to lead India to an 87-66 win to bag their first win in the competition. The win gave India the No 5 finish and play off against Hong Kong in the Qualifying section with Philippines facing the task of taking on Malaysia the No 1 team in Level II.
India went ahead 13-6 in the first five minutes and brooked no further challenge. Philippines were perky in their attempts, but found the taller rival defense more difficult to breach as the game wore on.
Limaye had a 9/14 in field shooting for her 20 points, and 7 rebounds on the offense in an overall collection of 11 boards.
Elizabeth Hilarious too had a double-double for India with a game-high 14 rebounds and 11 points.
Not that Philippines were go down without a fight.
Alyanna Ong and Alyanna Vergara maintained a steady scoring pace, albeit there were more attempts than conversions, kept the pressure to such extent that India coach Vinod Vachani got carried away and called for a timeout when Philippines scored two drive-ins in row. Despite India leading by almost 20 points and with about 3 seconds left on the clock.
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