THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Indian women’s basketball team achieved a phenomenal feat in the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup in Bengaluru last week as they trumped Kazakhstan 75-73 in the Division B final to qualify for Division A of the tournament’s next edition in 2019 -- a berth among the elites of Asian basketball.
Central to the team’s run to the finals were three Kerala hoopsters -- Jeena P S, Grima Merlin Varghese and Anjana P G. The trio from Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) were key cogs as India defeated their Central Asian rivals in a nail-biting encounter that was decided in the dying moments at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium on July 29.
“We were relegated from Division A in 2015. It was important to bounce back to the top division immediately,” said 23-year-old Jeena who was felicitated by Team Rebound, an organisation of former basketball players, in association with the Kerala Basketball Association (KBA), the Kerala State Sports Council and the Directorate of Sports and Youth affairs in a function here.
The national team attended a four-month coaching camp under the guidance of coaches Paramdeep Singh and Shiba Maggon before going on an exposure trip to Taiwan under their newly appointed Serbian coach Zoran Visic. “Normally, we have a two-month camp before major events. But I am sure this prolonged camp helped us get better results,” said Jeena.
Having qualified for the top division, India will face competition from Asian heavyweights like Japan, DPR Korea, and China as well as the new entrants like Australia and New Zealand at the FIBA Women’s Asia Cup in 2019. “It will be tougher compared to the previous years as Oceania teams are very strong. But we shall aim to finish in the top five,” Jeena, who joined KSEB in 2013, said.
Jeena was the most efficient Indian hoopster at the championship and scored a total of 65 points from five matches including 20 each in the semifinal and final against Lebanon and Kazakhstan respectively. Twenty two-year-old Grima was the top scorer among Kerala hoopsters scoring 69 points. She found 14 points in the final while added 19 against Sri Lanka in the group phase and 15 against Fiji in the quarterfinal. Anjana, meanwhile, scored eight in the same match.
In the felicitation ceremony held at the Press Club here, Sports Council secretary Sanjayan Kumar, Kerala Basketball Association vice president V V Harilal, Thiruvananthapuram District Basketball Association (TDBA) president Joy Mon, secretary Manoj Xavier, former international basketballer J Antony George and Team Rebound secretary Aji Kumaran Nair were among those who were present.