Kazakhastan plays spoilsport in India's Q/F chances

Tokushima, Japan, July 29 (UNI) Indian hoopsters' disastrous outing continued at the FIBA Asian Basketball Championship here, as they lost a crucial encounter against Kazakhastan today, thus ending their chances of qualyfying for the quarter-final stage of the tournament.

After the initial sparring by India, the formidable Kazakhs showed their mettle and pocketed the match with 97-74.

However, initially India were at par with their opponents but Anton Ponomarev, who netted 26 points and Yevgeniy Issakov (17 points) switched gears and helped the Kazakhs to run away with the match.

The top scorer for India was forward Jagdeep Singh and Lokesh Yadav who netted 11 and 10 points respectively.

In another Group 'C' match, Indonesia were convincingly outplayed by Qatar 45-86.

India and Indonesia will now play each other in an inconsequential group matxh tomorrow as Asian Games silver medallists Qatar and Kazakhastan had already booked their place in the last eight.

UNI