St Lawrence’s clinch Under 17 girls cager title
Angu RAJENDRAN
‘Fight! Fight! Fight!’ they shouted and fight they did for every
basket, in the All Island, Under 17 girls basketball championships at
the St Joseph’s basketball court in Nugegoda.
The school court resounded with the cheering of parents as two young
but aggressive teams St Lawrence’s and Holy Family Bambalapitiya clashed
in the finals of the All Island Under 17 ‘A’ division girls basketball
championships.
The first quarter was a slow start for HFC as St Lawrence’s took the
lead. The Familians made a great comeback in the second quarter as
Kayasha Siriwardene found her target and played a strong and aggressive
game to take the lead at half time 20/16. The game came to a draw at the
end of the third quarter with the score at 29 all. The more experienced
St Lawrence’s team came into the game with a front court press forcing
the very athletic young Familians to give in to nerves and miss many of
their free throws.
And in the crucial last few minutes of the game when St Lawrence’s
held the lead at 31/29 the most experienced youth national player Sheron
Wickramasinghe of the St Lawrence’s team was benched with five fouls.
What a turn of events ! And yet Natasha Perera another Youth National
Player came to the fore with her experience to lead the St Lawrence’s
team to victory with the score at 34/32.
In a game this close and this well fought there are no losers. What a
fabulous game indeed.
HFC, Dehiwale ‘B’ division champions
In the ‘B’ division finals at the HFC Dehiwala courts at the same
time another fine game of basketball saw the HFC girls emerge winners by
beating Our Lady of Victories Moratuwa 54/43. The score at half time
stood at 20 all.
Most valuable player was Chethana Sithumi of HFC, Dehiwala while Best
Defensive Player was also from HFC - Kaushalya Udayangani. Best
Offensive Player was Lakesha Fernando of Our Lady of Victories. For HFC
Chethana (28)Kaushalya (15) top scored. While for the losers Lakesha
Fernando(10) and Srimani (6) top scored.
|
