The 5’9” player from Dombivli’s best hoopster-nursery Agradneya Vyayam Shala (AVS) is by now used to this order of events at home. And 10th or no 10th, the talented youngster - the only Mumbai girl picked for the India selections camp - insists she’ll lurk around the ring and do her day’s fill of shooting, irrespective of what her education demands from her.

“Basketball’s a hobby, and I’ve been at it for so many years, I can’t stay a day without going to the court. It’s about managing your time. I look at the tournament schedule, and then weave my studies around it,” she says with a wink. Not that she has scaled down her academic expectations - the SV Joshi High School girl still expects to score over 85 per cent in her upcoming board examinations.

When on the court, this guard chases different percentages, and as part of AVS’ winning squad at the Nagpada Basketball Association tournament, the youngster was chipping in with her cheeky steals in the final - a day after completing her prelims.

Mumbai basketball’s power-centre_especially for girls_ seems to have shifted from the town-side colleges, even further beyond Indian Gymkhana to Dombivli. A suburb lined with tall hoardings proclaiming successes of coaching classes, Dombivli has formed an easy association with the game through AVS - played by school-goers who stress equally on academics. Six AVS girls have gone on to make the Nationals, and Bhuskute’s selection - Mumbai’s only one - leaves no doubt over the location of concentration of talent, and the nursery for future scouting.

Dombivli though, is notorious for its power-cuts, and Bhuskute and her AVS team-mates often end up missing practice as the floodlights go-shut. “I end up waiting, and then studying late at night after returning,” she says, adding that taking a year off the game was never an option she considered. Not since her coach pointed out to her how the 1-2 hours given to the books instead didn’t particularly show any steeping graph in fellow student’s percentages. “It’s about how you prioritise, how much you love the game,” she concludes.