It was a full house at Hendri Pediris Basketball Court for the Avant Garde Basketball Championship finals 2014. It was predicted to be an exciting finale since both the teams Avant Garde A and HSC Blues stepped in to the court after close finishes during their course to the finals.
Proving everyone’s expectations right HSC Blues hitched the winning line from just one point against the visitors. At full time scoreboard read in favour of HSC Blues 68-67.
With the clock striking half past seven the ball was thrown up on to air for the traditional jump ball start for the game. HSC Blues having the first tap of the ball had their first set piece of the game against a man to man defence from Avant A. HSC`s had several attempts at the basket but all failed during the first minute. But the brilliant offensive rebounds helped them to draw first blood and lead the game by two points just inside the second minute of the game. Avant A making their mark came back right after from an under the basket shot of the board by Philip Vukasakijvic off the assist by Lakshan Samarasinghe. It was dominant half by the home team playing good minutes of basketball filled with pace not allowing the Avant A defence to settle down. HSC`s filled in their lanes fast when the passes came by from their post players who etched almost all of the defensive rebounds in the first quarter. HSC`s experience campaigner Roshan Randima was set up at the HSC half for the fast break and Avant A depicted poor signs of settling in to this play by the home team. Dismantling the defence and itching off the rebounds favoured the home team to end the first quarter with a ten point lead.
(First Quarter – HSC Blues 19 Avant Garde A -09)
Avant A having the advantage of height over the home team had to make sure that their post players were fed with the ball to close down the lead and to defend the home team which they failed during the first ten minutes. Both Philip Vukasakijvic and Andre Jayakody played good minutes during the second quarter holding up to rebounds and playing in their offence with post isolation strategies. Back to back shots from downtown by Philip Vukasakijvic and Chamath Dhanwansa levelled the scores handing pressure back to home team. Both teams settling in to the game in this quarter played their set pieces of offence better than the fast breaks and the long passes running down the court. Mithila Abeysekara got the lead back in to the hands of the home team when he took his shot off a layup on the right lane and the ball swishing the nets. With one minute and thirty seconds left on the clock Avant A called off a timeout to change strategies and HSC`s were trying to defend their lead of three points before lemons. Visitors, feeding the ball deep in to the post made it a hard task to defend the lead. Philip Vukasakijvic took his jump shot off the three point line and the ball swished the nets and the scoreboard levelled drawing the crowd in to side lines predicting a nail biting finale
(Second Quarter – HSC Blues -30 Avant Garde A -30)
Sameera Chanaka restarted play for the home team and regained the lead back off a jump shot on the right elbow and was followed by an equaliser by Philip Vukasakijvic right after. HSC`s adjusted their defence in to the post isolation play when they played a sagging man to man defence during the first ten minutes of the final stretch. Timothi Niethushan stealing the ball off the visitors scored off from a fast break and made no mistake in getting the ball through the hoop from a layup off the board. The lead was back on the home team. Philip Vukasakijvic driving hard in to the defence of the HSC`s managed to draw half of the fouls in favour of Avant A. Maintaining a good free-throw percentage he managed to equalise and then again increase the lead by two points for the visitors. Andre Jayathilake was experiencing a good rebound night for the visitors which helped to survive a quarter which was dominated by HSC`s. The sagging man to man defence was indeed working on for the home team when the post up plays in offence was reduced in a higher percentage. Timothi Neithushan playing good ten minutes of basketball fought ahead to increase the lead with just four minutes to run down in the third quarter. But the post up play by Andre Jayathileke bought a chance of three point play when the referee blew off a shooting foul. Making no mistake of the set shot from the line he closed down the lead just to two points over the home team.
(Third Quarter – HSC Blues – 49 Avant Garde A -47)
The final ten minutes of the game was restarted by the home team. Both teams having less than ten minutes on the clock increased their pace in the game passing wide and long across the court. Avant A started the final stretch with a tight man to man defence which worked off in favour of them. HSC’s scoring first in the quarter managed to increase the lead up to four points. The four points lead was increased up to six points when Mohammed Faeshan scored off from an assist by Kasun Umayangoda. Both teams settling in to each other`s weak zones, grabbed rebounds in both offensive and defensive aspects and catching up deficits of points. Lakshan Samarsinghe driving in to left post and set him and up to a two point play which was later converted in to a three point play when he managed to draw the shooting foul off the defender. He closed down the lead just for four points with two minutes to run down. With 1.56 seconds to run down Christopher Imotskiese closed down the lead for just two points playing with his height. Pressure was right back at the HSC`s. With less than a minute to run down Roshan Randima took off his feet on to jump shot where he swished the nets and increased the lead for four points for home team.
Philip Vukasakijvic shot down the arc for three points to revive the lost hopes of the visitors and reduce the lead up to just one point with 18 seconds left. The man to man defence played by the home team drenched the hopes of the Avant Garde supporters when time elapsed but the score board still remained in favour of the home team over the one point lead.
(Fourth Quarter – HSC Blues -68 Avant Garde A -67)
Player of the match – Roshan Randima (HSC Blues)
Player of the tournament – Mithila Abeysekara (HSC Blues)
Referees for the game – Prasad Ranasinghe, Charana Perera and Janaka Fernando.
