Police ‘A’ beat Air force ‘A’

Anuradha ABEYSEKERA

Police ‘A’ team tamed the Air Force ‘A’ team (65-58) in a Carlton Cup 2011 division ‘A’ match played at the Police park courts yesterday.

Police team opened the account but soon dragged to the back seat by the strong Airmen who were three points ahead in the end of first quarter (15-12). Even though Air Force collected few back to back points in the beginning of the second quarter, they struck some unworthy fouls which the Policemen later converted into points on team foul basis and took the lead just before the half time stage. With a huge support from the spectators at their home courts, Policemen posted a five points lead at half time (30-25). Airmen fought hard in the third quarter with an aggressive attack that reduced the gap at the end of the third quarter (44-41). Police team held the grip and steadied their attack to build the gap in the final quarter and won the match with a seven point lead in the end. A Mastar collected 19 points and M Indika added 14 points for the winners while O. Umayanga scored 13 points and R. Dodangoda grabbed 11 points for the losers.

Meanwhile in a division ‘B’ match Police ‘B’ team went down to SMI Properties SC at their home courts (64-40). SMI were 12 points ahead in the first quarter (16-4) increased the gap to 16 points at the half time stage (28-12). Losers played an attacking game while scoring 18 points against SMI’s 14 points in the third quarter, but were tired and gave away the victory to SMI boys with a commendable margin of 24 points in the end.

Air Force ‘B’ team comfortably beat Sri Lanka Youth team (88-54) in their ‘B’ division clash at the Amal International School courts. Airmen kept a 17 points lead at the mid way (36-19) easily dominated through out the match and won the match with huge 44 points lead in the end. M. Shbreen (25 points) and P. Shanaka (13 points) were the best scorers for the Airmen while J. Jecobs (13 points) and T. Fazal (12 points) have been the highest contributors for the losers.