Five Takeaways from Day 1 of the FIBA U18 Women's Asian Championship 2018
BENGALURU (FIBA U18 Women's Asian Championship 2018) – The opening day of #FIBAU18Asia saw eight games in total being played across Divisions A and B.
BENGALURU (FIBA U18 Women's Asian Championship 2018) – The opening day of #FIBAU18Asia saw eight games in total being played across Divisions A and B.
While most games played out according to script, there were a few surprises as well.
Here are five takeaways from Day 1 of the FIBA U18 Women's Asian Championship 2018:
#1 Big Division A teams live up to their billing: Australia, China, Japan and Korea. Big names who also came up with big wins. While Australia and China were up against fellow Division A sides Indonesia and Malaysia, respectively, Japan and Korea proved their ability to execute their game plan against tougher opposition. All in all, the top four Division A teams lived up to their billing.
GEMS WIN! Strong first outing at #FIBAU18Asia, with 🇦🇺 prevailing 96-28 against Indonesia!
— Basketball Australia (@BasketballAus) October 28, 2018
Anstey (20pts, 12rebs) paced ten Aussies on the scoreboard including Emma-Nnopu (12pts, 5stls, 3blks), Hannan (12pts, 2blks), Goodchild (10pts, 4asts) and Palmer (4pt, 4stls)! #GoGems pic.twitter.com/zGZS8svkXd
#2 Division B more open than it first seemed: Syria's upset over Kazakhstan and Iran giving hosts India a huge scare, has meant that we could well have at least four or five serious contenders for the sole promotion spot to Division A.
Hosts #India 🇮🇳 survive #Iran 🇮🇷 #FIBAU18Asia
— FIBA (@FIBA) October 28, 2018
✍ https://t.co/63VbxcJjzi pic.twitter.com/tcyRzNmWxq
#3 Rude wake up call for Guam and Samoa: It was the two Pacific island nations' maiden Asian appearances. But historic milestones apart, it wasn't a very pleasant first day for these Oceania teams. While Samoa suffered what could perhaps be termed as a 'respectable loss', Guam was beaten by almost 50 points at the hands of Singapore.
Kalista Niu will go down in 🇼🇸🏀 history 📚 as the first player to score in FIBA Asia competition #FIBAU18Asia
— FIBA (@FIBA) October 28, 2018
✍ https://t.co/63VbxcrIHK pic.twitter.com/hbLfneeEhq
#4 Key players prove their worth: Whether it was New Zealand's Charlisse Leger-Walker, Iran's Fatemah Ghazvini, Australia's Emma-Nnopu or China's Yutong Liu, all of them stepped up for their respective teams, as expected. That said, Korea's Jihyun Park and Japan's Maya McArthur had sub-par opening games.
#5 Hosts India's injury woes: The hosts had already lost the services of two of its key performers from last year- Yaishnavi Yadav and Sanjana Ramesh. Today's game against Iran also saw center Pushpa Kumar sitting out, after she rolled her ankle in a recent practice. Considering how India survived barely survived a scare against Iran, these three absences could prove very damaging to the team's hopes of emulating their senior and U16 counterparts (in getting elevated to Division A).
FIBA