St Joseph’s Girls school clinch cager title for fourth time

Angu Rajendran

Bring it Home Josephians said the banner next to the court. And bring the championship home - they did. While half the country was glued to their TV sets watching the World Cup Cricket match, it seemed as if the other half of the Country was at St Joseph’s girls school, Nugegoda raucously cheering the Under 19 ‘A’ division girls basketball finalists St Joseph’s and St Lawrence’s.

Up until the middle of the second quarter, the scores were evenly matched as the arch rivals took on each other. Maybe it was nerves, maybe a slight over-confidence but it took a whole quarter and a half for the favourites Josephians to settle down and break out and play their usual game.

Having beaten St Lawrence in the preliminary round by more than twenty points St Joseph’s remained the unbeaten team.

When the scores stood at 19/17 in favour of St Lawrence’s in the middle of the second quarter, two amazing three-pointers from Jayani Nugi of St Joseph’s from the top of the D, set the mood for the rest of the match. Sanduni Perera, controlled the game from then on and St Joseph’s players proved their superiority in every way.

A team effort by St Joseph’s, with a very tight man-to-man defense and some stunning passes inside the D which resulted in under the basket shots and very accurate shooting from the three point line.

For the Lawrence girls too much of dependence on Natasha Perera, their junior national player proved their undoing. She was closely guarded and so missed many under the basket shots.

The speed with which the two teams played was almost like watching a boys match. Amazing! But in the end St Josephs proved that basketball is a team game and a well moulded team trained by an experienced coach In this case Ajit Kuruppu will definitely win the day.

St Joseph’s were crowned the Under 19 ‘A’ division champions with a final score of 54/42. The Most Valuable Player was Sanduni Perera of St Joseph’s while the Best Offensive Player was Natasha Perera of St Lawrence’s and the Best Defensive Player was Bilali Bawodani of St Josephs.

In the consolation finals Holy Family Convent, Dehiwala beat Visakha Vidyalaya 59/51 in a closely fought match.