AMMAN (Jordan) - Eight long years of waiting has finally come to an end after India stunned heavy favorites Lebanon, 64-62, to secure their ticket to the FIBA U18 Asia Cup 2024 Quarter-Finals, Friday at the Prince Hamza Hall.
The SABA Qualifiers champions nearly blew a 15-point lead but Ankush came through with crucial free throws in the dying seconds, and the whole team all hung on to advance to the tournament for the first time in almost a decade.
India last reached the Quarters in the 2016 edition of the biennial competitions held in Iran, making all the more special a campaign that also saw them win a game for the first time since 2018 when they beat Kuwait just last Wednesday.
Now, the team of Coach Scott Fleming will brace for their biggest test to date when they take on the tourney's winningest nation in China on Saturday.
Game heroes: Ankush top-scored for India with 14 points on 44.4-percent shooting from the field as he stepped up to the plate in crunch time after seeing Mohamad Ishan and Lavish leave one after the other as the two key cogs got fouled out.
Ishan and Lavish, though, caused damaged to the opposition before fouling out as they played major roles in the team's solid showing in the middle quarters that ultimately led to a 55-40 advantage early in the deciding chapter.
Ishan left the game with a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds, together with 4 assists, a steal, and 3 blocks to net an efficiency of 21.
Two other players finished with 10 points, namely Sahibjit Bhullar and Mirthun Danasekar, in their ouster of Lebanon, who finished fourth in 2022.
Turning point: Then again, the win was by no means easy for India as they had to endure a furious late-game rally by their West Asia counterparts.
Lebanon managed to get to within just two with 1.1 seconds left to play, when Ray Sleiman got fouled upon cleaning up the missed try of Ralph Iskandar.
He intentionally missed his bonus free throw in an attempt to get it back for another deuce, but a phalanx of India defenders avoided that from happening.
Stats don't lie: Free throws doomed Lebanon's chances against India, as they converted just 10 of their 25 shots from the charity stripe.
FIBA