Under 19 girls cager final

Angu Rajendran

In two very exciting semi finals of the all island under 19 girls basketball championships conducted by the Schools Basketball Association at the St. Joseph’s Girls School, Nugegoda yesterday, the Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya girls despite lagging behind 25-31 at half time beat St. Paul’s Milagiriya with a big lead.

After equalizing at 38, five minutes after half time, the Sirimavo girls fought back to win 71-45. For the winners Erandhi Rajapakse (31), Thushani Rajapakse (20) and Buddhini Wijenayake (9) excelled while for the losers Lahiruka Weeraratne (17), Charmini Perera (12) and Koshini Anne (8) were the top scorers.

In the second semi final St. Joseph’s, Nugegoda girls proved experience is what really helps in a tight match and with one national player and two youth national players, beat Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala in a very close match.

With one minute to the final whistle HFC were in the lead but three of their senior players were fouled out and St. Joseph’s took advantage to win 62-58. For St. Joseph’s Solanji Gunavijaya (national player) scored 32 while Jayani Nugi scored 11 and Deyuni Kaushalya (8).

For the losers Diyuni Abeysinghe (national player) scored 29, Vindhya Jayasinghe (12) and Chamudi Cooray (10). The final will be played between St. Joseph’s Girls School and Sirimavo Bandaranaike Vidyalaya on November 8 (Sunday) at 3 p.m.

The consolation finals between St. Paul’s Milagiriya and Holy Family Convent, Kurunegala was rather tame as St. Paul’s won easily 51-33. At the half-whistle the score was 32-10 in favour of St. Paul’s.

For the winners Lahiruka Weeraratne (21) and Kalpani Ramanayake (10) were the top scorers. Diyuni Abeysinghe (10) and Pooja Dharmaratne (10) top scored for the losers.