Royal-Thomian clash in u-15 cager final
Angu Rajendran
In two exciting South Zone Under 15 cager semi-finals held at the
Royal courts yesterday, between Royal and St. Joseph’s Nugegoda and S.
Thomas’ and St. Sebastians, Royal and S. Thomas’ came out on top and
will clash in the final today at 4 p.m. at the same venue.
In the first match Royal were behind at half whistle by 2 points. The
score stood at 17/19 in favor of St. Joseph’s Nugegoda. However,
Prasanna Jayasinghe, the Royal coach realizing that Joes completely
depended on their one ace three point shooter Sameera Chanaka, put two
players to defend him and avoid all the screens provided by his
team-mates for him and completely rendered him useless in the third
quarter. Royal’s forwards Ashen Matunka and Shamaz Shiraz scored easily
to account for 25 points in the third quarter while St. Joseph’s scored
only 3 points in the third quarter.
Using a five sector offense Royal proved that a dependence on just
one or two players is not going to help a team win a game. The final
score stood at 65/48 in Royal College’s favour. For Royal the top
scorers were Ashen Matunka (17), Julian Gunasinghe(16), Shamaz Shiraz
(14). While Sameera Chanaka (26) and Jude Tharindu (17) top scored for
the losers.
In the second semi final S. Thomas’ proved their superiority in a
rather rough game where the tallest player of the tournament from St.
Sebastian’s Chenud Gavishka fouled out in the third quarter.
The Thomians were a well-moulded team, strong in their fundamentals
and they led throughout the game. Only in the second quarter did the
Sebastianites come close with a score of 30/33 but Thomian Michael
Alphonsus scored a few quick baskets and built up the lead again.
Sebs could not break through the strong full-court man-to-man defense
of S. Thomas’ and with the Sebs tallest rebounder benched in the fourth
quarter, the Thomians had a field day to win with a score of 77/64.
Michael Alphonsus (39), Amal Amarawardene (17) and Avishka Ranasinghe
(8) top scored for Thomians. Rajin Fernando (22), Kenneth
Wickramasinghe(15) and Nishen Perera (15) top scored well for the
losers. |