MAS Holdings defeated John Keells Holdings last evening in a nail-biting finish at the Henry Pedris Basketball Court. As these two teams in the B division battled it out, MAS came out on top taking the victory in the final minute. Read on to see how it happened.
Peoples Team of the MSBA League 2017 – Vote
The 27th Edition of the Mercantile Basketball League will commence during the third..
The Mercantile Basketball League started once again, after taking the time to mourn the loss of the beloved basketball player Ranil Ganewatta.
The first quarter kicked off with MAS getting first possession of the ball from the jump ball but their attempts at scoring were foiled by the JKH tight defence, all attempts made at driving in were completely rejected. It was evident that both teams had an ‘A’ grade defensive side as both teams found it difficult to shoot, leading to very low scoring quarters. The MAS team was very agile as all the players kept moving around and looking for an opening to take a shot giving them a slight advantage as they took the lead by 01 point.
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First-Quarter: MAS Holdings- 10 John Keells Holdings- 9
The second quarter was no different with both teams maintaining a tight man to man defensive game and neither team scored more than 10 points during the quarter. Both teams seemed equally matched. Neither team had an edge on the other by the end of the first half, as MAS led going into lemons by a mere point once again.
Second-Quarter: MAS Holdings-18 John Keells Holdings- 17
The half time allowed the players to catch their breath and they all came into the second half playing as aggressively as they started off with neither team slowing down. JKH managed to trail MAS by just 01 point at the end of the 3rd quarter thanks to Alex beating the defense with his crossovers and reverse lay-ups and getting a couple baskets for his team. Although neither team took a substantial lead since they weren’t able to find a way through the others defense to get consecutive baskets.
Third-Quarter: MAS Holdings- 32 John Keells Holdings 31
The tension was high as both teams walked onto the court for the final 10 minutes with neither team having a substantial lead over the other and the game could have still gone either way. Alex from JKH turned out to be a crucial player for the quarter as he worked the ball past the defense giving JKH scoring opportunities. The scores were tied all the way until the final minute of the game which is when John Keells ran out of luck making a few untimely fouls which lead to MAS taking the lead from free shots with just seconds to go on the clock.
Fourth-Quarter: MAS Holdings- 51 John Keells Holdings- 44
The coach of the winning team Mr Prasanna Jayasinghe had this to say speaking to ThePapare: “It was a very close match but we made our fair share of mistakes on the court with a lot of missed shots. John Keells is definitely one of the toughest teams in the division and it was even tougher for us having to play them this early with one of our key players Sudesh playing with an injury but I’m glad we were able to win even though it was a close game.”
