Indian U-16 cagers lose to Iraq

Jakarta: India's Under-16 basketball team lost to Iraq 69-90 in the fourth Asia Championship here on Sunday.

Playing their second straight preliminary round game in less than 16 hours, India captain P. Baladhaneshwar, forward Ankit Joshi and centre Adarsh Jayakumar showed a late fourth quarter surge, but the Iraqis held on to progress to the second round.

India will now play a classification match for 13th-14th position on Monday against the winner of Hong Kong vs Bangladesh. India were scheduled to play a classification match for 13th-16th positions but received a bye due to the absence of North Korea from the competition.

Result: India (P. Baladhaneshwar 26 points, Ankit Joshi 24, Adarsh Jayakumar 10) lost to Iraq (Abdullah Abdullah 39, Ahmed Jasim 12 and 16 rebounds, Abbas Al-Qarnawi 16) 69-90 (16-25, 20-24, 8-26, 25-15)