The Indian men’s basketball team ended its marketing campaign on the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament Asia 2023 with a 66-79 defeat towards Bahrain in Damascus, Syria on Thursday.

India claimed two wins and three losses within the pre-qualifying match for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Their closing place on the six-team desk will likely be decided after two different matches later within the day.

India started with wins over hosts Syria and Indonesia however misplaced their manner after a slim three-point loss towards Kazakhstan of their third match. They suffered a defeat of their fourth recreation towards Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

Bahrain, in the meantime, punched their ticket to the ultimate Olympic qualifying match scheduled for subsequent 12 months with an unbeaten run. At world No. 84, Bahrain had been the fifth-best ranked aspect among the many six groups competing within the match however managed to high the desk to say the one out there spot for the subsequent spherical.

Sahaij Sekhon scored 17 factors and was the highest performer of the day for world No. 82 India. Sahaij Sekhon additionally made 4 assists, 4 rebounds and two steals through the match. Muzamil Ameer Hamooda (24 factors) and Mustafa Rashed (14 factors) led the assault from Bahrain.

India began the match with optimistic intent and led Bahrain 24-17 within the first quarter. 

The Indian basketball staff had alternatives to extend its lead however an absence of scientific ending allowed Bahrain to mount a comeback and switch the tables within the second quarter.

From being seven factors down in the beginning of the second quarter, Bahrain had been 9 factors forward at 48-39 after 20 minutes.

The Bahrain basketball staff continued so as to add to its lead with a free-flowing attacking recreation within the third quarter and elevated India’s deficit to 19 factors. 

Indian basketball captain Vishesh Bhriguvanshi, together with skilled campaigners Muin Bek Hafeez, Amyjot Singh Gill and promising teenager Pranav Prince, didn’t have the most effective of days on the courtroom as India ended up shedding the competition by 13 factors to bow out of the competitors.

Basketball has been a medal occasion on the Summer Olympics since Berlin 1936. The Indian males’s basketball has appeared within the Olympics solely as soon as, ending twelfth on the Moscow 1980 Games.