Shooting guard Harsh Dagar top scored with 19 points as India went down tamely, 105-65 to China in a Group B match of the FIBA U18 Men's Asian Basketball Championships at the Azadi Basketball Hall, City Arena Tehran on Sunday.
Besides Dagar, U-16 player Kushal Singh (16) and Lokendra Singh (15) were the other major scorers for India in their opening Group phase match of the championships. For China, Jinyu Liu was the top scorer with 28 points while Lijia Liu and Yahui Sun contributed 14 points each to the score.
China led 30-14 at the end of the first quarter and then dominated the second for 24-14 as they managed a big lead by half-time.
India ran them close 20-26 in the third quarter but the Chinese outscored them again 25-17 in the fourth and final quarter to emerge a comfortable winner.
India and China are in Group B along with South Korea in this 10-team competition.
India will next take on South Korea in another Group B match on Monday.
In other matches on Sunday, Chinese Taipei beat Qatar 96-52 in the four-team Group C, while the Philippines thrashed Syria 112-48 in another match in the same Group.
In a key match in Group A: hosts Iran lost narrowly 65-63 to Lebanon to start their campaign in the three-team group on a losing note.
