Indian win lift South Asian Basketball Championship

Kathmandu, May 18: The Indian men`s team completed the formalities with a 108-32 win over Maldives to be crowned the champions of the third South Asian Basketball Association Championship here on Saturday.

India`s suffocating half court defense meant that Maldives was rarely able to get within 15 feet of the basket while India virtually lived in the paint.

Forwards Amjyot Singh, Riken Pethani and Centre Amrit Mann combined for more than 10 dunks in the lopsided contest.

Such was the size mismatch that the tallest Maldives player was almost a foot shorter than India`s 7ft centre Amrit Mann.

By halftime India led by a whopping 64-16 margin and after threatening to cross the 100 point scoring barrier in the earlier matches, finally registered a 108-32 triple digit victory today.

With this win, India finished an unbeaten 4-0 in the tournament after earlier beating Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal.

As the number one team in South Asia, India have now qualified for the much tougher Asia Cup to be held in Wuhan, China in mid-July, where sterner tests against Asian powerhouses China, Iran and Philippines await.

Detailed Results: India 108 (Prakash Mishra 16) beat Maldives 32 (Aushane Ibrahim 12).