KATHMANDU, Sept 8: Nepal suffered 57-68 loss at the hands of Bangladesh in the ongoing U-16 SABA Basketball Championship on Thursday.

Earlier on Wednesday, Nepal had defeated Bhutan to make the wining start in the tournament. 
In the match played at National Sports Council covered hall, Tripureshwar, Kathmandu, Nepali young players made positive start winning the first quarter 22-10 but Bangladesh made an impressive come back in the match winning the second period 21-10. Nepal regained the control in the match claiming the third quarter 14-10. However, with the home team losing the final quarter by 11-27, Bangladesh sealed its first victory in the competition.  

Bangladesh’s Tanbir Prodhan was highest scorer of the match with 18 points while Abhishek Singh contributed 23 points for Nepal.

In another match of the day, Bhutan registered 63-54 victory over Maldives. It was the first win for Bhutanese team which had lost out its first match to Bhutan. Winning side Bhutan scored 20-9, 18-17, 13-9 and 12-19 with Tshering Deujor securing highest 17 points for his team. Thoha Mahmoud Zayan scored 13 points for the Maldives youngsters.

Meanwhile, Nepal Basketball Association announced a cash prize of Rs. 45,000 for the Nepali team for their brilliant start to the competition. 

President of Nepal Basketball Association Lama Tendi Sherpa said that cash prize was announced to motivate the players. “Although we lost the match today, players were still brilliant. The Association announced the cash prize for them because we must appreciate their effort so as to further motivate them,” said Sherpa. 

On Friday, Maldives will take on Bangladesh and Nepal is to compete against India. 
The competition that is being held in round robin format that has featured a total of five South Asian nations is also the qualifying tournament for the FIBA Asia Championship. Top team from this tournament will secure its place in the Asian championship.

 
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