St. Joseph's Girls 'A' division cager champs

Anuradha ABEYSEKERA

St. Joseph's Girls School, Nugegoda walked away with the 'A' division Girls Basketball Championship trophy by beating St. Lawrence's Convent, Wellawatta (74-35) in the final played at their home courts recently. They maintained a flawless record through out the tournament being unbeaten.

St. Joseph's lasses never allowed their opponents to pose a threat and dominated through out the game. Their fierce attack and half court man to man defense were every effective where St. Lawrence's girls found difficult to cope with. After posting a seven point lead in the first quarter (17-10), winners were 14 points ahead at half time (33-19).

St. Joseph's team carried out with their speedy attack and grabbed 28 points against nine points from their rivals in the third quarter. Eventhough St. Lawrence's team fought hard with all their skills,

strong home team never let the visitors to make inroads to the game and won the match with a comfortable 39 point gap. Losers were tired and given up the game in the final quarter where they were only able to score seven points in contrast to 13 points from the winners.

St. Joseph's captain Saduni Perea who was adjudged the most valuable player of the tournament for her excellent performance contributed with 29 points in the final while her teammate Jayani Nugi, who was picked as the best offensive player, scored 18 points. Pooja Dhrmakeerthi of St. Lawrence's Convent was awarded the best defensive player, along with Natasha Perera added 15 and 12 points respectively for the losers in the final.

Meanwhile in the consolation final played at the same day, Good Shepard Convent, Kotahena beat St. Paul's Milagiriya (40-34) to emerge second runner-up in the tournament. Milagiriya girls were in the lead during the first quarter (8-3) lost their grip in the second quarter as Shepardians came back to the game aggressively scoring 18 points while restricting opponents to eight points. Shepardians were five points ahead mid way (21-16). Losers fought hard in the final quarter collected 12 points against 10 from the winners but went down to Shepardians with a 14 points margin in the end.

Ishika Alles and Imeshi Fernando scored 11 and 10 points respectively for the winning teams while Uvivni Krukula (10 points) and Gayanka Kavindi (seven points) were the best scorers for the losers.

Sri Lanka Schools' Basketball Association Secretary Noel Cooray was the chief guest at the award ceremony.