Royalists outplay the Thomians to grab the D.S Senanayake Trophy

• 
• 

Details

Category: basketball

Published on Sunday, 13 November 2011 16:55

Written by Dilshan Sirisena

Hits: 5174

 

The Royalists managed to grab the ninth encounter of the Annual Royal Thomian Basketball game played at the S. Thomas College, Mount Lavinia courts today. At full time the scores read 54- 49 in favour of Royal College.

The champion side was captained by Kasun Uyangoda while Shanil De Silva led the home team. Thomians winning the jump ball of the match failed to convert it into first points of the match. Rizan Rizvi managed to score the first points of the match in the 02nd minute. With 6 minutes to go in the first quarter the scores were level with 4-4 on the score board. Royal center Rizan Rizvi was the top scorer for the first quarter with 06 points. At the end of the first quarter the scores read 15- 12 in favour of Royal College.

Michael Alphonsus opened the scoring in the 1st minute of the second quarter. Damithra Peries scoring two back to back baskets managed to tie the scores once again with 6 minutes to go in the clock. Royal Captain Kasun top scored in the second quarter with 6 points while Damithra Peries and Michael Alphonsus were trailing with 4 points each. At the end of the first half the scores were in favour of the visitors with 24 points to 22. The Royalists failed to dominate during this quarter as the underdogs were in possession of the ball majority of the time; however their lead in the previous quarter gave them the edge of the Thomians.

Rejuvenated after the break Rizan Rizvi once again opened the scoring in the quarter with a quick basket. Julian Gunasinghe scored two consecutive baskets helping the Royalists extend their lead by 08 points with 7minutes to go. Kasun Uyangoda also chipped in with 02 back to back baskets and added more pressure on to the home team in trying to get possession of the ball for the first time in the quarter. Captain Shanil De Silva and Damithra Peries scored the sole baskets for the Thomians in the third quarter. Thus the Third Quarter proved to be the turning point of the match as the Thomians were restricted to scoring only 6 points while the Royalists scored a total of 16 points. At the end of the third quarter the scores read as 40-28 in favour of the Royalists.

The final quarter of the match proved to be very exciting as the Thomians tried their level best in coming back into the game while the Royalists continued playing their game with the level of same momentum. Captain Kasun opened the scoring for the quarter. Shanil De Silva, Dematrius Augustine and Michael Alphonsus scored three quick baskets for the Thomians helping them to bridge the gap to 44 points to 35 with 8.34 minutes to go in the last quarter. On the other hand Rizan Rizvi, Sandeepa Rathnayake and Julian Gunasinghe also helped them gain extra 9 points adding more pressure onto the home team. With 3.15 minutes to go in the clock while the score read 51 points 41, Thomian forward, Ashvindh Wilson shot a welcoming three pointer changing the entire rhythm of the game by giving a massive boost for the home team to fight back into the game.  Center Sahan De Alwis and Michael Alphonsus thereafter took control of the ball and chipped in with 8 very valuable points into the score card. However this was too late as at the end of the final whistle the Royalists had sealed the game with the scores as at 54 to 49 points in a closely contested encounter.

Royal Captain Kasun Uyangoda top scored for the day with 18 points while Rizan Rizvi also chipped in with 12 points for the winning side. Meanwhile, Michael Alphonsus, Dematrius Augustine and Damithra Peries top scored for the Thomians with 17, 10 and 9 points respectively.

Michael Alphonsus was awarded the Best Offensive player award while Rizan Rizvi won the best defensive player award. Captain Kasun Uyangoda was judged as the most valuable player.

For pictures of the event click here

Old boys game pictures

• < Prev
• Next >