The Girls semi-finals of the Senior Nationals Basketball Tournament started off with Army playing against MSBA and Colombo playing against Air Force. By the end of the girl’s semi’s MSBA and Colombo were set to meet in the finals. Read on to see how it happened.
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MSBA vs Army
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The game was started off by MSBA and the next several minutes were dominated by MSBA as they went on a scoring rampage. This was mainly due to the non-existent Army defence allowing MSBA to breeze through to the ring. Although it was a slow paced game Army failed to make their shots and it was an extremely one-sided first half. Unlike the Army team, the MSBA players stuck to their offensive strategies and scored consistently to widen the deficit. Army failing to hold on to the ball were completely left behind on the scoreboard as their opponents were more than double their score going into lemons.
Photos : 51st Senior Nationals 2017-Level I Semi Finals
Half-time: MSBA – 36 Army – 13
As the second half began the Army team were relying heavily on 3’s to catch up. Yet it wasn’t enough as they failed to secure rebounds whilst their opponents managed to recover well after their missed shots by securing the offensive rebounds and converting them successfully into baskets. The Army were not in their best form with a low shot accuracy and subpar defence. With a couple of minutes left on the clock, there was no chance for an Army victory in this one-sided affair of a game and even though victory was certain MSBA didn’t let up at any point.
Full-time: MSBA – 76 Army – 36
Colombo DBA vs Air Force
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The next game was started off by the Colombo team scoring a quick mid-range jumper followed by a half court press that allowed them to keep dominance throughout the game. The first half of this semi match began to seem like a one-sided affair as well with Air Force barely scoring in the first 10 minutes. Moving on to the final 10 minutes of the half the Air Force team came back having tightened up their man to man defence and scored a couple baskets reducing the deficit but it wasn’t enough to turn the tables on Colombo.
Half-time: Colombo DBA – 24 Air Force – 16
The Colombo team seemed to have relaxed a bit and became sloppy missing passes and losing possession of the ball. Throughout the half both teams had problems with the foul limit. This was especially the case for Colombo. The half saw both teams score quite a few points through free shots. It wasn’t a high-scoring game as neither team was able to make their shots count therefore the defence was what would decide a winner. The Colombo team had the advantage when it came to speed allowing them to collect more rebounds and score through fast breaks whilst Air Force tried to counter this with shots from downtown. In the final few minutes, the Air Force strategy of shooting from beyond the perimeter worked and they were left trailing by only 5 points but it wasn’t enough as time wasn’t in their favour and Colombo proceeded to the finals.
Full-time: Colombo DBA – 43 Air Force – 38
The coach of the Colombo team had this to say regarding the match after their victory: “It was closer than what we expected but I think that was because we relaxed and got too comfortable halfway through the game and made many mistakes on the court. We’re hoping to win the next match although we know it’s not going to be easy because the other team has a lot of well experienced and mature players but we’ll be looking forward to a good game.”
