Carlton Cup 2011 Basketball Championships:

Otters notch up their second successive win

Anuradha ABEYSEKERA

Otters Basketball Club registered their second consecutive win in the Carlton Cup 2011 Basketball Championships when they proved their supremacy against Old Bens SC at the Police Park courts yesterday (79-62) in a division ‘A’ match. They beat Colombo Bulls team in their first match of the tournament (56-51).

Both teams were fighting closely in the first quarter as the game turned into an exciting contest where Old Bens were trailing just a one point (20-19). They could not resists the fierce attack of Otters players who got into fine tune with superb team work in the second quarter and posted a 13 point lead at half time stage (40-27).

The strong Otters team maintained their dominance in the third quarter after the game was resumed for about 30 minutes due to a power failure during the half time break.

They continued with the same attacking fashion to bring the scores to 60-39 in the end of the third quarter. Even though Old Bens tried with all their skills by scoring ahead in the final quarter (23-19), it did not lead them to success as the Otters BC finished the match victoriously with a 17 points lead.

G Neelleniya and I Perera were the chief scorers for the Otters BC who scored 22 and 19 points respectively while C. Stallone (33 points) and E Sudhara (11 points) were the top scorers for the Old Bens SC.

Meanwhile in a division ‘B’ clash at the same venue Old Anandians went down to Moratuwa SC (60-40). Moratuwa team never allowed Anandians to take the lead even though they had a five point narrow lead in the first quarter (19-14). Winners increased the gap and made it a 13 point lead in the end of first half (35-22).

Moratuwa SC comfortably attack in the third quarter and kept the lead 52-29 in the end. Even Though losers fought hard in the final quarter Moratuwa SC won the match with a 20 points margin.

D Bharathai and T Panaluwa Scored 19 and 12 points respectively for the winning team while H. Jayakodi and D. Kosgahakubura added 13 and 12 points for the losing team.

Two division ‘B’ matches and one division ‘A’ match of the tournament will be played in two venues today.

Police ‘A’ team will battle against Air Force ‘A’ team at the Police Park courts in division ‘A’ while the division ‘B’ will see Police ‘B’ team taking on SMI Properties SC at Police Park and Air Force ‘B’ team meeting Sri Lanka Youth team at Amal International College courts.