Kathmandu, March 30

Nepal and Sri Lanka maintained their winning run in the first South Asian Women’s Basketball Championship here at the National Sports Council covered hall today.

Nepal thrashed the Maldives 77-36 riding on allround performance from Sneha Shrestha, who also starred in opening match against Bangladesh. Shrestha scored 28 points, took 15 rebounds and had five assists. Luniva Singh was also close to triple double as she netted 13 points, took 10 rebounds and had eight assists, while Anusha Malla scored 12 points, took six rebounds and had 11 assists.

Nepal dominated the match from the start and took a 22-0 lead in the first quarter. Nepali players faltered in shooting in second period, still they extended the lead to 28 points after taking quarter 19-13.

Nepal regained the momentum after the break and won the third period 24-6 to open up a lead of 46 points going into the final period. Maldives came back strongly in the final period and won 17-12 but it was too late. Afzani top scored for the visitors with nine points.

Nepal’s coach Bikash Shahi was not happy with the performance of the players. “Today was a bad day for the shooters as they missed more than 30 shots. The players also lacked in coordination,” Shahi said. Maldives coach TH Amath was happy with his girls’ performance. “We are playing our first tournament and the girls played well. Nepal is a good team but we were able to hold them in the final period, which is big achievement for us,” he said.

In the first match of the day, Sri Lanka overwhelmed Bhutan 122-31. Sri Lanka took the first period 31-6 and extended their lead winning the second quarter 28-11. Sri Lanka then won the third period 31-12 and thrashed Bhutan 22-2 in the final quarter.