Singapore [Singapore], March 30 : The Indian men's team's impressive run at the FIBA 3X3 Asia Cup 2025 concluded with a loss to New Zealand in the quarterfinals by 21-11 at Singapore on Sunday.
During the match, Arvind Muthu emerged as the top scorer for world number 67 India, while Harsh Dagar and Kushal Singh contributed three points each, as per Olympics.com.
Te Tuhi ki te Rangi David Lewis was the best player in the game, scoring eight points for the world number 22-ranked New Zealand team.
India kickstarted the match positively, with Muthu and Dagar giving India a 4-2 lead. However, from there, NZ won eight points to establish a 10-4 lead, and things were never the same for India, despite a fightback that reduced the deficit to 10-8.
Despite their defeat, India can walk away with their heads held high as they recorded three successive wins to enter the main draw and beat Macau, higher-ranked teams like South Korea and the Philippines.
India was a part of the Pool B in the main draw, India beat the high-ranked side Chinese Taipei 21-18 and pushed China to their limits despite a 21-19 loss.
India moved to the quarterfinals after 12 long years, and there they lost to New Zealand. In the 2013 inaugural edition of the competition
The Indian women's basketball team, though, could not make it past the qualifying rounds, losing to Hong Kong and Chinese Taipei after winning over Guam.