Among the heated matches in the’ A’ division Sri Lanka Navy vs. Sri Lanka Police was another tight victory. The first quarter was led by the Navy-men with 17 to 15 points on the board.
The ice breaking basket was by Charith Perera of Navy, which was soon followed by K. Indhika ‘s three pointer for the team Police. Indhika startled the audience by scoring 13 points in the first quarter itself with three, three –pointers. Although three pointers did not come in handy for Sri Lankan Navy, they were able to make up for the aggressive play of Indhika through a culminate effort with only one three pointer by Charith.
The second quarter was a game changer for Police. Taking on from Indhika, Sampath Sanjeewa’s showdown of three pointers added 12 points to the Police’s total while Navy was only able to get hold of 8 points. Dahnuka Muthikudaarachi contributed with three baskets to the 8 point total of Navy, but it was not good enough a save against the charging Police battalion. Learning from the mistakes in the first quarter, Sri Lanka Police kept moving, playing within the ring for the most of the time. At the same time the high intensity of the Navy players also went down to the advantage of Police.
The third quarter was a recovery for the Sri Lankan Navy. Yet it was not good enough to make up for the points vacuum. At 15-16 with Navy one point behind the Police in the third quarter points they were three points behind Police in the total. Considering the game of Basketball three points is just one basket away but, also noting the competitiveness of the game it was not an easy margin.
The highlight players of the third quarter were Mohammed Azham of Police, who scored 5 baskets within the third quarter itself, and Charith Perera of Navy. It’s remarkable how Sri Lanka Police was able to bring up new players into the attack surprising team Navy: K. Indhika in first quarter to Sampath in the second quarter and Azham in the third.
The last quarter was the most breath taking of the whole game. With both teams struggling to surpass each other, score being always tight by one basket, the game was intense. The teams were showcasing equally skilled game play in all aspects; even the efficiency of free baskets was almost the same. Taking the lead for Police was Indhika and Sujith Jeewantha and for the Navy it was Charith Perera, Tharindu Bandara and Gemunu Herath.
It was a close victory to Police after all, with the final quarter being a draw with 17-17 points. The spectators were awe-struck by the amazing game play of both teams in the final few minutes. The stress faced by Navy was visible through the 8 fouls the team went through in the last quarter out of 14 fouls in the whole game. Yet they managed to keep the total score a tie till the last minute at which point Indhika scored the winning three pointer for Police.
