The 2nd Annual Alles-Gunesekara Cup was held at the Henry Pedris Stadium Basketball Complex. In an intense cracker, Gateway College managed to dethrone the defending champions Royal College Colombo.
From the tip-off both teams struggled to find the net and the momentum. Four minutes into the maiden quarter GCC switched the defence from a zonal defence to man-to-man, which allowed them to get steals and convert them into points.
Unfortunately, Nelaka Upasena, who was getting more offensive rebounds and scoring second chance points got an ankle sprain while attempting a shot which took him out of the game for the rest of the quarter.
GCC having a height advantage managed to get more offensive boards and score second chance points to put an early lead of 5 points with the score being 16-11 at the end of the first quarter.
With a quick recovery, Nelaka Upasena, managed to get back in the game for the second quarter. RC looked to have improved in their defence and played with a fighting spirit.
Nevertheless, GCC started to score far more effectively and penetrated the RC defence often which led to fouls. GCC converted all the free-throws which gave them an easy lead against the Royalists.
Due to the accuracy of scoring from the free-throw line the intentions from GCC camp was obvious, drive in, draw the foul and convert the free-throws. Moreover, with the height advantage GCC managed to get more offensive rebounds and score chance points increasing the lead to 7 points as they stepped into lemons.
Half time: Gateway College Colombo-34 Royal College-27
Towards the next part of the game, RC fought back starting more effectively to score than in the previous half. With a much improved defence, RC got themselves back into the game squaring the score board 40 all with 04 minutes remaining in the third quarter.
However, GCC answered back with a couple of shots from behind the arc and mid rangers to swing the momentum back into their favour. As the scoring run continued GCC managed to retake the lead by 7 points at the end of the 3rd quarter with the score being 51-44. Both sides scored 17 points in the third quarter.
With fast flowing offense from both teams, during the final quarter, RC started to fight back to retake the lead. With each valuable possession converting into points, RC for the second time equalized the score board 55 all with 03 minutes remaining in the match.
As the game went down to the wire, GCC who had much better offense and scored more effectively throughout the game, Aaron Foneska and Disura Dissanayake managed to retake the lead by 5 points with a minute left on the clock.
With time running out, it simply wasn’t Royal College’s day as GCC wrapped up the second edition with a 05-point win.
Full time: Gateway College-62 Royal College-57
The Head Coach of GCC Tharindu Fernando speaking to ThePapare.com said, “It was a fairly tough game, both teams were quite equal consisting of two national youth players on each side. I think offense was the key and we were able to get more rebounds offensively and scoring second chance points which lead us to the victory.”
Top Scorers
Gateway College – Aaron Fonseka-19 points
Royal College – Ravindu Jayawardana-12 points
Individual Awards
- Best offensive player – Aaron Fonseka- Gateway College
- Best defensive player – Heshan Hansaka- Royal College
- Most Valuable player – Chavaan De Costa- Gateway College
