Players watch as the ball goes down the Malaysian basket for another Bangladesh point during their match at the Dhanmondi Basketball Gymnasium yesterday. Photo: STAR

Bangladesh made it two wins out of two in the Sheikh Kamal International Basketball Championship by beating the Malaysia U-18 team by 66-47 points at the Dhanmondi Wooden Floor Basketball Gymnasium yesterday evening.
Hosts Bangladesh, who had a 77-44 win over Bhutan on the opening day, took the game to the Malaysian teens from the very beginning and raced to an 18-6 lead in the first quarter. The margin was widened in the second quarter as the hosts sailed to a 41-18 lead. The Malaysians made a bit of a comeback in the next two quarters as the hosts eased off a bit, but in the end they fell short by 33 points.
Mithun netted 28 points for Bangladesh while Rashed scored 11. Chua scored maximum 12 points for the losing side.
In spite of the defeat one cannot be too critical of the Malaysian teens, considering the fact that they had to play another match in the morning. They lost that match too, by 67-64 points to favourites West Bengal.
West Bengal lead the first half 39-24, but like the latter match, the Malaysians managed to come back into it, yet in the end losing by three points. S Pal netted maximum 19 points while Subhash scored 16 for the winners. King netted 11 and Chua netted 10 for the losing side.
In the second match of the day, Maldives scored a 105-72 point victory over minnows Bhutan. The Bhutanese, who were enjoying partisan support from the locals, made a brisk start to the game but fell behind soon after. The first quarter ended 23-21 in favour of Maldives after which they stepped up the pace and widened the margin in the next three quarters, eventually taking the game by a 33-point margin. This was the only score of over 100 so far in the tournament.
Maldives' assistant coach Ibrahim Nahid was satisfied with his boys' work. “I'm happy with the way we performed. You see this is only the second international tournament for us and we see this as a preparation for the upcoming Indian Ocean Games a few days later,” said Nahid.
However Nahid, who runs his own designing business in Male, was less than satisfied with the organising of the tournament, echoing the disgruntled sentiment by other foreign team staff.
“We were only told about the draw a day before the tournament. Then a team even did not make it in the end. Furthermore, the turf is a bit sticky which makes it hard for players to perform.”