Lankan girls beat Indian under16 cagers

Angu Rajendran

In their last match of a series of friendly matches that the Bishop Cottons under 16 girls team from Karnataka, India played here in Sri Lanka, they lost to St Paul’s Milagiriya 36-48. Lahiruka Weera of St. Paul’s (a Sri Lankan junior national player) led the Sri Lankan onslaught, controlling the game, shooting at least three three - pointers, quick and clever passes inside the D and driving in through the zone for easy lay-ups.

The Indian girls just could not stop her. In turn, young eleven year old Lopa from Bangalore played the game of her life. Defending in the two-one-two zone defense pattern, Lopa managed to steal the ball many a time to go for easy lay ups.

The Indian girls were tired, a few players were injured and they played a very dispirited game against St Paul’s.

The Indian team coach however refused to make excuses for his team’s performance saying that the St Paul’s girls were more accurate with their three pointers and like all the other teams that they had played in Sri Lanka, they were very good at driving in through the zone and shooting.

The Indian girls were not used to this kind of attack and could only defend as an afterthought and this resulted in many fouls even though this Bangalore school team is ranked second in India for this age group.

The score stood at 34-31 at the end of the third quarter in favour of St. Paul’s. Just when everyone expected India to make a comeback in the last quarter, Lahiruka Weera of St. Paul’s managed to shoot a couple of three pointers, instantly making the lead too much for the Bangalore girls to catch up with. Lahiruka (24), Umari (8) and Koshini (8) excelled for the winners while Lopmudra (12), Ashika Kuruvilla (10) and Aman Preet Kaur (6) top scored for the losers.

In the earlier matches Bishop Cottons defeated Kandy District 52-30, Holy Family convent Kurunegala beat Bishop Cottons 42-41.

St. Joseph’s Girls School beat the Indian team 45-40 and Bishop Cottons beat Visakha Vidyalaya 41-40. Indian coach admitted Sri Lankan teams definitely play a superior game to the Indian team. This was a friendship and learning experience organized by the President of the Kandy District Basketball Association which he hopes will be an ongoing exchange programme.