India finish 5th, qualify for next Asia Basketball elite division

New Delhi, June 9 (UNI) India qualified for the elite division competition of the next FIBA Asia Basketball championship following their 86-68 defeat of Malaysia at a play-off match at Incheon, Korea.

After topping Level II with a five match all-win record, India led the Malaysians in all the four quarters of play to book a berth in Level I for the next edition of the biennial event.

The win against Malaysia also secured an overall fifth place finish in the championship which is far better than the 10th-place finish in 2005.

India had earlier beaten Singapore (111-32), Vietnam (111-67), Uzbekistan (67-63), Hong Kong (88-61) and Sri Lanka (105-56) in the Level II matches.

Geethu Anna Jose was the star performer again, scoring 47 points.

Rashmi Channe Gowda (14 points), Anitha Pauldurai (6), Divya Singh and Bharti Netam (5 each) were the other scorers.

In fact, Jose now leads scorer's tally in the championship with 197 points from six matches, according to a Basketball Federation of India release.

She and Divya Singh have received invitations from Basketball Association of Chile to play in their national professional league, the release added.

Meanwhile, South Korea qualified for next year's Olympics by virtue of being a finalist in the championship as the other finalist, China which will host the Olympics.

UNI