Game 1: Royal College, Colombo vs Kingswood College, Kandy
1st Half
The 1st game for Sunday at Royal College, shot off between Royal and Kingswood College with both teams starting quite slow but trading equal blows led by the usual culprits in the form of Rukshan for Royal and Thilina for Kingswood. The 1st quarter saw a back and forth game with the score card settling at 8 points apiece at the end of the period. Royal came out strong in the 2nd quarter with the two post players Gimhan and Pulathisi scoring a basket each and then again scoring via a layup prompting a KCK time-out. Thilina stepped up immediately for the Kandy team and scored a jumper and a few fast break layupssingle-handedly scoring the next 8 points for KCK. However unlike in their opening game vs CIS Kandy the Royal big men seemed to be more active and had more impact around the post especially in this quarter as Royal mounted a 7 point lead at the half (24-17)
2nd Half
The highlight of the 2nd half was the Royal center Gimhan who did quite a lot of damage to KCK in the form of 9 points in this quarter and also made some crucial interceptions of the cross passes. He has a solid jump-shot and also the power-dribble and finish at the basket . Although he has some way to go in becoming an elite center, he certainly does seem to have the right tools in terms of size, skill and a steady head that might help him get there in the years to come. Amalka was a live spark for the visiting team off the bench hitting 2 huge 3s keeping them in the hunt. Royal took the quarter with a 3 point differential pushing the score to 43-33. Although baskets from Isuru and Shanaka gave KCK some hope, the Royal Skipper Dilshan Menuka completely took over the 4th quarter scoring an and-one basket, a Fast break and a big 3 and also racking up several steals to seal the deal for the Reid avenue boys.
One must say that Kingswood played with a lot of heart but have for the 2nd straight day committed over 10+ turnovers. They NEED to make every possession count to win!
Final score : RC (55) – KCK (37)
ThePapare.com Man of the Match
The MoM clearly goes to the Royal College captain Dilshan Menuka who was wearing the Number 8 jersey for his 11 points, 3+ assists and 5+ steals and also his effective help-defense and game-control.
Coaches feedback
Royal College – Mr.Prasanna Jayasinghe : ” Proud of Royal point guard Tharindu Balasuriya for showing tremendous courage and playing for his team in spite of not being a 100% due to a semi-concussion he suffered in yesterday’s game. Team is capable of even better”.
Kingswood College Kandy – Mr.Panduka Ranasinghe : Shanaka (KCK Point guard) got his ankle injured while warming up in the morning and even though that match was postponed he couldn’t fully recover from that injury and it had an adverse effect on the outcome for us.
Game 2 : Lyceum vs CISK
1st Half
Star player Kiran for CISK was forced to sit out initially due to the calf injury he sustained in game 1. Hamza from CISK moved into the point guard role from his usual shooting guard spot and immediately made a statement that he is clearly a combo-guard, capable of playing both at the 1 and 2. CISK started very strong playing with a lot of intensity on defense and crashing the offensive boards. CISK completely dominated the 1st quarter as they stormed to a 19-8 score. Going into the 2nd period Nimesh, Yasith and Rashan each scored 2 baskets more in the quarter to give the boys from Wattala a slight advantage in the quarter although they were still trailing by 8 as they went into the half-time (22-30).
2nd Half
The 3rd quarter was yet another one-sided affair only this time it was the Kandy Boys who were at the receiving end as Lyceum really went all out and cut the lead to 3 points at one point of the quarter (29-32) to force a CISK time-out. Kiran was forced to get into the game as result. Off the time-out CISK turned the ball and immediately got punished by Sunal who hit a game to tie (34-34). Yasith had some very strong drives to the hoops to put Lyceum in the lead. Lyceum scored 8 straight before Umair finally scored for CISK off a floater and as the 3rd quarter ended Lyceum had taken that quarter 24-11 as a result of which the game was now tipped in favour of Lyceum 46-41.
Although Umair kept making some tough shots for CISK along with Kalindu they were never really threatening to bridge the gap as they constantly allowed Nimesh to score on the break on the other end. Towards the last stages of the 4th quarter the once glorious CISK offense was almost non-existent. Although there were 2 last minute back to back baskets for CISK it was a tad bit too late. CISK really need to re-analyse their shot selection as it is quite sad to see such a talented team force shots that have a very low probability of swishing the nets. This was the 2nd time CISK has blown a 1st period lead as they clearly don’t seem to have enough gas to finish the job off. But in their defense their squad is relatively young and appears to have the potential to pose a lethal threat in the next tournament. The intensity with Lyceum played saw them walking with a ‘W’ quite comfortably at Full time.
Final scores – LISW (58) vs CISK (51)
ThePapare.com Player of the Match
ThePapare.com Player of the Match is the Lyceum Wattala Point guard Nimesh wearing the number 11 jerseyfor his 14 timely Points, control of the game and solid defense.
