Delmege Group clinch Mercantile 'A' division cager title

Sanjaya Ariyaratne

Delmege Group posted a convincing 92 points to 65 victory over DFCC Group 'A' to clinch the `A' division title of the Mercantile Basketball Championship which concluded at the Otters Aquatic Courts, Colombo a few days ago. The tournament was conducted by the Mercantile Services Basketball Association and sponsored by Hatton National Bank.

The half time scores stood at 45 points to 28 with Delmege Group taking the lead. National cap Roshan Randima played a great role for the winners when he scored a massive 32 points. He was well supported by S. Perera with 20 points and Diluk Himantha with 11 points.

For DFCC Group R. Jayasundara top scored with 17 points while G. Meedeniya and M. Saranapala also excelled contributing 14 points each.

Before reaching the final Delmege Group beat Dialog Telekom `A' by 80 points to 65 while DFCC Group defeated fancied Sampath Bank `A' by 85 points to 72 in the semi finals.

HSBC coasted to a 87 points to 72 win over Dialog Telekom (B) to be crowned as the `C' division champions of the same tournament. The scores were equal at 35 points at the breather.

Andrew Wijesuriya gave a fine display for the winners with a massive 42 points with S. Ramanadan and R. Rajudin also scoring 15 and 11 points respectively. R. Hamid with 30 points and E. Karunanayake with 16 points did well for Dialog Telekom.

In the semi finals Dialog Telekom beat Ceylinco Group by 78 points to 64 after taking a close 36 points to 35 lead at half time.

M. Mohideen with 26 points and R. Hamid with 24 points shone for the winners while D. Sameela with 30 points and C. Chamara with 14 points were the main scorers for Ceylinco Group. Diluk Himantha of the triumphant Delmege Group was adjudged the most outstanding `A' division player of the tournament while Sri Lanka national cager Roshan Randima also from Delmege Group was named the best player of the `A' division final.

In the `B' division the excellent player award went to Charitha Kulawardane of Nations Trust Bank `A' while Andrew Wijesuriya of HSBC carried away the most outstanding cager prize in the `C' division. P.C. Krishanthan of Nations Trust Bank `B' was awarded the `D' division best player prize while Saduni Bollegala of Seylan Bank won the most outstanding player award for the womens.

In the women's final Seylan Bank beat Hatton National Bank by 84 points to 78 after taking a 35 points to 25 lead at the breather. Premila Fernando with 30 points, Inoka Sandamalie (20) and Sanduni Bollegala (10) were the top scorers for Seylan Bank. For Hatton National Bank Erandi Gallage (27) and skipper Kumarine de Silva (22) were the chief scorers.