Pilipinas U21 falls short against Indian challenge
A determined India U-21 National squad took to the floor and proved their worth all-game long as they took down the Philippines U21 side, 106-92 as the Round Robin Stage in Pool B play continued at the Asian U21 Championships for Season 58.
The Filipinos were once again sluggish coming out of the gates in the opening quarter, surrendering a seven-point gap at the end of the first 12 minutes of play on the strength of their frontline beanpoles Sathiyadev Naskar and Ishudhi Saxena, who scored six each in the period.
The Indians would establish a 10-point lead midway into the second period, 34-24, but opening game hero JC Guardamano would engineer a run that would cut the deficit to five, 38-33. India would re-establish their largest lead later in the quarter, and just as a CM Fabella jumper would cut the deficit again to seven, 48-41, a Vadish Rath buzzer-beating tip-in would extend the lead back to nine, 50-41, entering the interval.
The second half saw not much luck for the Filipinos as the lead ballooned to 14 points on multiple occasions. Their last attempt at a comeback came with around seven minutes left in the game as an Atoy Pradrera layup made it 86-77, but a back-breaking 20-9 run in the ensuing five and a half minutes of the game proved to be too much to handle for the Filipinos.
The Philippines shot only 33% from the field and 34% from distance, which was below their clip of 54% overall and 46% from deep against Indonesia. Guardanamo proved to be a consistent scoring threat with 31 points, followed by Fabio Espero's 14. Fabella would score 13 points and grab 16 rebounds while Pradrera's 11 rounds up the double-digit scorers for the Philippines.
Their Indian counterparts were led by Ishudhi Saxena with 25 points and 16 boards, followed by Gabhastimata Vayunandan's 24 markers. Rath would have a double-double as well of 15 points and 17 rebounds as three other Indian players scored in double figures.
The loss evens out their card at 1-1. They will return to action next week as they take on Taiwan's U-21 team up next.