Cager double for Gateway

Angu Rajendran

A Middle School Sports Exchange Program aimed at developing basketball among fourteen year olds was organized by the Overseas School in Colombo. Two teams from India - The American International School of Bombay and American International School Chennai along with the Overseas School in Colombo and Gateway College Colombo played in a quadrangular invitation tournament organized at the Overseas School Sports Complex last weekend.

Gateway College players trained by Tharindu Fernando were thrilled to play in this new environment of the Overseas School Sports Complex simulating a real NBA environment.

In the boys semi - final Gateway College beat American International School Chennai in a one-sided match 35/8 despite the fact that the Chennai school team are the South Asian International Schools Champions.

The top scorers for Gateway College - Melantha Jansz (14) and Saptha Amarawickrama (9 points). For American International School, Chennai, Noah Marshall scored 6 points. In the girls segment too Gateway College came out on top in a close fight, beating American International School Chennai 12/9 in the finals. The top scorers for the winning Gateway College team were Shanelle Ranathunga with 8 points and Nethma Arsakulasuriya with 4 points. For the Chennai team - Divya Srihara scored 6 points and Emily Brando scored 3 points.

The boys final was one of immense intensity coming to a decisive one point game ending, with the final scores being 18-17, against the American International School Bombay. The high scorer for the winners - Gateway College were Saptha Amarawickrama who bagged 08 points and Melantha Jansz who contributed 6 points.

The top scorers for the losers were Calder Hoover who had 8 points and Bryer Finnegan with 08 points.

All in all it was a week end of enjoyable basketball where great skill and sportsmanship was on display.