Indian basketball team falls to Jordan in overtime, miss out on historic upset

The Indian men’s basketball team put up a brilliant fight but lost 91-84 to Jordan in overtime in its FIBA Asia Cup 2025 Group C opener at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday. World No. 76 India went toe-to-toe with 35th-ranked Jordan in an end-to-end contest as the two teams finished regulation time tied at 80-80. The valiant effort, however, fell short in added time. Arvind Muthu (187-G-2000) led India’s scoring with 14 points and was well supported by Pranav Prince (198-G-2003) and Harsh Dagar (189-SG-2005) (12 each), Pratyanshu Tomar (202-F-2000) (11) and captain Muin Hafeez (189-PG-1996) (10). Jordan’s Tucker Dar (193-SG-1988, college: DePaul) top-scored in the match with 30 points ahead of his teammate Hashem Abbas (198-F-1999, college: Bridgeport), who scored 24. Jordan, semi-finalists at the last edition of the FIBA Asia Cup in 2022, led 18-14 after the opening quarter. However, India stormed back early in the second with eight unanswered points to take control. The sides were level 38-38 at half-time. The third quarter saw Jordan edge ahead again, opening up a 60-55 lead with a late run. India mounted a fierce comeback in the fourth, with Pratyanshu Tomar, Amaan Sandhu, Pranav Prince and Harsh Dagar driving the charge. With a minute left for the final buzzer, India led 80-76 but Jordan forced overtime by scoring the final four points of regulation. The Jordan team’s experience showed in the crunch period as they held off India’s challenge to seal a hard-fought win.
Courtesy of: olympics.com