FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup: Indian women's team into the main draw with 3 wins

India women's 3x3 basketball team booked their place in the main draw with two clinical wins over Indonesia and Hong Kong respectively while the men's team took a hammering against Malaysia to bow out of the FIBA 3x3 Asia Cup Qualifying round in Singapore on Wednesday.

The women's team started the day with an 18-12 win over Hong Kong showcasing a very good physical game in which they also gave 10+ fouls to the opponents but they couldn't capitalize on that and missed a lot of free throw opportunities.

Pushpa Senthil Kumar used her reach very well to win 50% points of the team's points in this match including a 2-pointer. India won the match but their centre, Kavya Singla suffered a very bad Knee Injury and could not take part in the day's play.

They were high on confidence after that crucial victory but in the next match against Indonesia, they had no one on the substitution bench after Kavya's injury which could have been a big factor.

They started the second match with extra motivation and won four points straight as the clock started and India quickly took a big lead of 12-2 with sheer strength but then the exhaustion came into their game as expected because of no substitute.

However, they held on to this big lead with regular pushing and in the end won the match 20-13. Pushpa had another big match as she again won 9 points in this match with her good one-hand grabs, Aneesha Cleetus (6) and Sreekala Rani (5) supported her very well.

India topped their qualifying group C with three out of three wins to progress to the main draw where they are placed in the toughest possible group D alongside defending champions Australia and a strong New Zealand side.

The top two teams from the group will progress to the knockout stage, India will be trying to make it to the knockout stage and also hope that Kavya recovers from her injury as the matches are scheduled on 30th March so they have one full day for recovery.

Earlier, the men's 3x3 team had a horrific defeat (9-21) in their final qualifying group match against a quick Malaysian team which ended their campaign from the tournament as they were knocked out in the the qualifying round as Malaysia topped the group and moved into main draw.