The ladies from Army and HSC Pinks were still suffering the effects of the heat and looked tired throughout the match. It was a close game between the teams with both maintaining a balanced score. The Pinks managed to alter the score only at the very end of the game tipping the scoreboard in their favour.
The first quarter of the day began slightly in favour of team Army, but the Pinks were closely following the scores making it a tie at every possible chance they got. HSC Pinks had a good defense against the Army blocking each of their moves and attempts to the hoop. Both Army and Pinks had several missed attempts at the hoop and ball was being thrown off the court quite often. At the end of the first quarter the Pinks managed to score 7 points against the 6 points scored by Army.
The pattern of missing the hoop and throwing the ball off the court continued in the second quarter. The first score attempt in this quarter became successful from HSC Pinks, who received the pass from Sanuri, who displayed excellent offense and defense with the ball simultaneously. Perera from the Army team also used interesting deceive techniques to hold on to the ball and pass it through the hoop to balance the score to a tie. Chandima from Army followed a teammates continued to succeed the attempts to increase the points. But Keyasha from the Pinks changed this trend at the last minute by shooting the ball from the three point line and making it their lead at the end of half time.
Half time – Army – 18 vs HSC Pinks – 17
The third quarter began with no definite display of win for either team. The Pinks and Army continued their defense against each other balancing their scores. Unlike the other games in this season, the players looked quite tired and the game failed to keep the audience interested, although the score board was maintained at a tie. Dusara, Perera and Rasika captain of the Army team and Dilumi and Sanuri from the Pinks teams were some players who still kept up the momentum. At the end of the third quarter Army had 30 points against the 29 point by Pinks; this was after the successful pass through the hoop at the last minute off a free throw.
Damayanthi from Army passed the ball across the court to Chandima who scored two points building up their strong lead. But Nimali from the Pinks succeeded a throw from the three point line making it a tie on the score board. The scores did not change till the last four minutes. This is when the HSC Pinks decided to up their game, started building up their scores. This was the best few minutes in the match where Pinks moved passed the defense by Army and scored 5 point in two minutes. Army was not ready give up even at the last 10 seconds; they dribbled, passed and broke the defense by the Pinks to move the ball through the hoop for one last time. Still Pinks had a lead that was left unbroken at the end of full time.
Sanuri De Silva sharing her thoughts with ThePapare.com “explained that this was not their best game and there was a lack of coordination between the members. And they are focusing on identifying their weaknesses and bring out the best as strong team in the next match against the Navy.”
Full time – Army -34 vs HSC Pinks – 40
ThePapare.com Player of the match – Sanuri de Silva
