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This story is from February 22, 2020

11 seconds it took Bahrain to stun India 68-67 in Fiba Asia Cup basketball qualifier

Having failed to control the possession for 11 seconds cost India dear as hosts Bahrain turned the things in their favour and snatched a thrilling one-point (68-67) win in the opening tie of the Fiba Asia Cup 2021 qualifiers on Friday night.
11 seconds it took Bahrain to stun India 68-67 in Fiba Asia Cup basketball qualifier
NAGPUR: Having failed to control the possession for 11 seconds cost India dear as hosts Bahrain turned the things in their favour and snatched a thrilling one-point (68-67) win in the opening tie of the Fiba Asia Cup 2021 qualifiers on Friday night.
With 11 seconds remaining the 74th ranked Indian outfit had a handy four-point advantage but they missed couple of free throws, committed a turnover and finally made a defensive lapse to allow World No 113 Bahrain score five points and register a thrilling win by a wafer-thin margin.

Making most of the strong crowd backing at the Khalifa Sports City stadium in Manama, hosts Bahrain broke India's heart after Hesham Sarhan dropped the game-winning three-pointer from the left corner to regain the lead and pocket the game with a second left for the hooter.
After taking time to settle into their groove India dominated the proceedings by maintaining the lead for over 27 minutes as against the 10.35-minute by Bahrain, who brought themselves back in the closing seconds.
Having won the first quarter 19-14, the home team failed to handle India's shooting from the paint and at one stage were trailing by as many as 12 points after the visitors dominated the second period 24-9.
After the change of ends, Bahrain slowly made inroads in India's defense and after winning the third period 19-14 hosts claimed the last quarter 21-15 - scoring six of their 21 points in the final 50 seconds of the thriller.

For the defeat India were themselves to be blamed as they converted just 57% of their free throws. Indian skipper Vishesh Briguvanshi too rued the missed chances. "Whole game we were leading but in the last we were unable to control the possessions. Of course we missed free throws, had we converted half of them we would have definitely won," Vishesh said.
"End of the game sometime you win and sometime you lose. It's hard to win when you shoot 12-21 from the line. We are a new team and it is in the making. We are developing our team for the future," Indian coach Veselin Matic added.
On how India failed to handle the 12-point advantage, the skipper said, "In basketball 10 or 12 points doesn't matter and it was our bad luck to lose this game."
The defeat against an opponent who is ranked almost 40 places below will surely hurt India's chances in their qualifying bid for next years' Asia Cup as in the next game they will face the challenge of much higher ranked Iraq on Monday.
RESULT: Bahrain (Mohamed Ebrahim 18, Chester Giles 15) bt India (Amritpal Singh 17, Prasanna Venkatesh Sivakumar 12, Muin Bek Hafeez 13, Vishesh Briguvanshi 13) 68-67 (19-14, 9-24, 19-14, 21-15).
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