CIS and Gateway enter both cager finals

Angu Rajendran

Despite the hot and wet weather of our country, the under 13 International Schools basketball tournament is finally nearing completion. The two girls’ semi-finals Colombo International School Vs OKI and Gateway College vs Lyceum, Wattala were played on dry ground. CIS beat OKI in a close match by 16-14 after leading 10-4 at half time. The OKI girls played basketball in ‘Netball’ style to give a good fight to the CIS girls had the advantage of playing on their home court. For CIS Suhara top scored with 8 points while for the losers Amanda top scored with 8 too.

In the other girls’ semi final Gateway walked through Lyceum, Wattala’s defence scoring easily to win with 43 to Wattala Lyceum’s 6.

Hirushee (8) Shenuka (6) and Rayani (5) top scored for Gateway while Alicia(4) top scored for the losers.

In the first boys semi final - CIS Vs Alethea - played in rainy weather with a slippery court and ball, it was a question of who could survive the wet weather or rather who had practiced more in the rain. With a lot of slipping and sliding and complete inability to use the skills that have been recently learned, Alethea lost to CIS 15-21. Alethea led in the first quarter 8-2 but by half time CIS had got the lead 10-8 and the shivering little boys continued their shooting spree to win the match 21-15. For CIS Navin (11), Stefan (4) excelled in their home court, while Ryan scored 8 for Alethea. The last semi-final of the day was Asian International School vs Gateway College. Gateway beat AIS 48-16. Half time score was 17-16 in favour of AIS.

The first basket of the game was scored by a Gateway player into the AIS basket. The Gateway player Alex is a former AIS student. There was confusion as the ball slipped and the players fouled clutching each other for support. Due to the special rules of the under 13 tournament whereby no player can play in all four quarters and all ten players should have played before the fourth quarter, clever change of players for each quarter by the coach is vital to winning the game.

AIS star player Bevan Samuel was marked by the Gateway players and in the third quarter when Bevan did not play, Gateway scored easily and changed the game, to win with a big margin of 48-16 despite their tallest player Melantha being fouled out. Ruchi (18), Alex (11) and Melantha (9) excelled for the winners while Bevan (15) and Taher (8) top scored for the losers.