SABA TITLE FOR INDIA & QUALIFY TO THE FIBA ASIA CHALLENGE
13/07/2016
Bengaluru, 9th July, 2016: The Indian senior men’s basketball team Coached by P J Sebastian along with C V sunny crowned as champions of the South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Zone here at the Kanteerava Indoor Stadium Bangalore .and qualified FOR the FIBA Asia Challenge scheduled from 9th to 18th September 2016 in Tehran, Iran.
India easily beat Bangladesh 95-35 in the final round robin league game to finish the qualifying round with a perfect 3-0 record. This is India’s third consecutive win at the South Asian regional qualification level, Earlier for the crown India had beaten Maldives 96-40 Nepal 81-53 and stayed unbeaten in the four-team league.
The trophies and medals were distributed by Sri Ramalinga Reddy, Hon’ble Minister for Transport, Government of Karnataka. The other chief guests included Sri Pramod Madhwaraj, Hon’ble Minister for Fisheries & Youth Services, Sri Priyank Kharge, Hon’ble Minister of Karnataka for IT & BT Tourism (both government of Karnataka), Sri K Govindaraj, MLC (Karnataka) & President of Basketball Federation of India (BFI) and Sri Chander Mukhi Sharma, Secretary General, BFI.
The team will be lead by centre Amritpal Singh, returning from winning the National Basketball Developmental League (NBDL) Championship with Toyko Excellence in Japan T Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, Yadwinder Singh, Arjun Singh (all from ONGC) Talwinderjit Singh & Arshpreet Bhullar (Punjab), Akilan Pari, Rikin Pethani (both Income Tax, Chennai), Basil Philip (Central Customs & Excise, Kochi), Arvind Arumugam (Vijaya Bank, Bengaluru) and Aravind Annadurai (Indian Overseas Bank, Chennai). Ravi Bhardwaj (Chandigarh).
Detailed Scores
India-95 (Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 16, Aravind Annadurai 15, Amritpal Singh 14) bt Bangladesh-35 (Mithun Kumar 8) [36-13, 24-8, 19-8, 16-6]
India-96 (Talwinderjit Sahi 15, Rikin Pethani 13, Ravi Bhardwaj 12) bt Maldives-40 (Ibrahim Shareef 8) [23-5, 28-9, 23-19, 22-7]
India-81 (Vishesh Bhriguvanshi 11, Amritpal Singh 10, Arshpreet Bhullar 10) bt Nepal-53 (Sadish Pradhan 13, Sonam Lama 12, Ashim Shrestha 12) [23-4, 17-21, 21-8, 20-20]