Peterites in narrow win over Navy

Thushan Jayasuriya

A Navy player scoring an easy under the basket shot. Picture by Bhagrawa Kithsiri

Peterites Basketball Club ‘A’ team registered a narrow one point victory over the powerful SL Navy by scoring 65 points to 64 in their Carlton Cup 2012 ‘A’ division basketball match worked off at Henry Pedris courts yesterday after trailing by 30 -36 at halftime.

The teams entered the court with confidence and continued their battle for supremacy. It was the Navy who dominated the first half and maintained their dominance with determination. The Peterites came out with fine teamwork but couldn’t resist the pressure put on them by Navy and the sailors led 18 - 16 in the first quarter.

Navy continued their dominance in the the second quarter, making the game tough for the Peterites. Peterites reduced the lead, but couldn’t make any impact. Navy were still ahead 36-30 at half time.

However, the Peterites came up with a stupendous performance in third quarter to take the lead at the end of the quarter. Peterites managed to collect most of the rebounds and counter attacked penetrating rivals’ man-to-man defence on several occassions. They continued theit aggressive attack and Peterites led 48- 44 at the end of third quarter.

In the final quarter it was a challenging task for both teams and they were struggling to maintain their dominance. The Sailors tried hard to take the lead but the Peterites didn’t allow them to make inroads and snatched victory by sealing the match 65- 64.

For the Peterites, Lakshan Samarasinghe (27 points) and Sudesh Perera (19 points) made useful contributions while K.Sounderaja (19 points) and S.Nithusan (13 points) were the main contributors for the Sailors.