Gateway clinch Under-17 cager title

Angu Rajendran

The long overdue International Schools Under-17 boys basketball finals was played with much excitement yesterday. Gateway College beat Asian International School by 85 points to 76. From the first whistle AIS took the lead.

Janith Liyanage AIS captain was in full form controlling the game as the score fluctuated for the first and second quarters. Two well-matched teams playing hard and fast in the mid-day sun.

The half whistle blew with AIS in the lead at 39/34. But Coach Tharindu of Gateway College had come for the finals with a game plane. He decided to use the trap defence.

Trap defence requires the team to have high endurance and also runs the risk of the players collecting fouls.

That is why Gateway Coach decided to use this tactic only for the second half of the game.

Gateway brought this strategy into play in the third quarter rattling AIS ball controllers. Also Gateway's tallest and key player Shehan Udugampola was kept fresh for the second half so that he could come into play when trap defence was on with 32 points in the third quarter alone while AIS managed 11. This was the turning point of the game.

The team with a plan - Gateway College though nervous at the start to play against the AIS stalwarts like Janith Liyanage, Kesigan Paramanayagam and Anook de Fonseka they were confident that their recent performance at the All Island Public Schools 'A' Division Basketball finals would carry them through to victory.

Gateway 85 (Ricardo Fernando 30, Danushka Gunasekera 26 beat AIS 76 (Kesigan Paramanayagam 27, Anook de Fonseka 13.

Danushka Gunasekera of Gateway College was declared the 'Most Valuable Player' of the tournament while Ricardo Fernando, also of Gateway College was adjudged the Best Offensive Player while Kesigan Paramanayagam of AIS was the Best Defensive Player.