Late on Tuesday (IST), the second Jr. NBA Global Championship tipped off at the at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando.
August 6th was Day 1 of Pool play and both the Indian teams played one game each.
Both the Indian squads were pooled alongside teams from Latin American, Africa, and Europe & Middle-East.
MORE: India squads for the Jr. NBA Global Championship 2019
Among the Indian teams, the boys were the first to take the court.
Going up against the boys from Latin America, it was a tough battle and it did require an overtime period but the Indian lads eventually came out on top.
By outscoring their counterparts 14-8 in the extra four minutes, the boys clinched a 73-67 win.
Lokendra Singh drops 28 points and Harsh Dagar adds 26 to power the India Boys team to a pool play WIN! 🔥 #JrNBAGlobalChampionship pic.twitter.com/paDkIxX9zD
— Jr. NBA (@jrnba) August 7, 2019
Dagar finished with an all-round stat line with 7 steals, 6 rebounds and 3 assists to go along with his 26 points. On the other hand, Lokendra Singh ensured his 28 points were efficient, making nine of his 16 shot attempts, while also recording 8 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists, and 2 blocks.
Apart from the high-scoring guard duo, other key contributors in the win were Kushal Singh (11 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals) and Janmejay Singh (9 rebounds, 3 points, and 3 blocks).
The Singh trio of Kushal, Janmejay, and Lokendra played all 36 minutes of the game (four eight-minute quarters and a four-minute overtime period).
The boys shot marginally better than their opponents (42.6% > 39.0%). The biggest difference between both teams were the turnovers recorded by the Latin America squad.
The Indian boys registered 16 steals, in comparison to six by their opponents, which played a huge role in the Latin America squad recording 22 turnovers to India's 12.
For more box score info, click here.
For the girls, Muskan Singh top-scored with 13 points and Manmeet Kaur pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds but they came up short against the team from Latin American, losing 21-54.
For more box score info, click here.
On Day 2 (August 7 local), the Indian boys have a two-game slate ahead of them. They compete against Africa at 11 PM IST (Aug. 7), then they take on the team from Europe & the Middle East at 5:00 AM (Aug. 8).
Just like the boys, the girls have two games to prepare for on Day 2. They face-off against the Africa squad at 9:30 PM IST (Aug 7) and then take the court against Europe & Middle East at 3:30 AM IST (Aug. 8).