Second win for Sri Lanka, Nepal defeated

Sri Lanka took on Nepal in the second match of the South Asian Basketball Championship 2018 (SABA 2018), played in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Sri Lanka, keeping up the consistency in shooting, managed the second consecutive of the tournament beating Nepal, 70-57. 

Previous Games

Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh 65-34
Nepal beat Bhutan 68-65

Starting Five

Sri Lanka: Joseph Gayan, Praneeth Udumalagala, Roshan Suranga, Isuru Prabath, Roshan Randima.

Nepal: Ajay Kushwaha, Saurav Shrestha, Rajiv Joshi, Sadish Pradhan, Manesh Subedi.

Game in a nutshell

An exquisite game of basketball. What Nepal lacked in height they consolidated in speed. Nepal started proceedings off in style with a faster paced game which completely took the Lankans by surprise. In-fact Nepal led the game in the maiden quarter by a couple of points, 16-14.

Sri Lanka depicted poor signs of adopting into the pace of the opposition. Missing out on shots and rebounds, the game plan was in disarray. It was the rotation of players that helped Sri Lanka out of the misery. Coach Susil was quick with substitutions, letting the pressured players rest and injecting fresh legs to the court.

It completely rattled Nepal`s rhythm. The Sri Lankan bench scored 48 points in the game. That`s how good the Sri Lankan bench was. As this continued for the first two quarters, Sri Lanka eventually led the game at half time, 33-29.

Once the players settled their nerves, Sri Lanka ran riot exercising their form, from the previous match. Shots were coming in, rebounds were being grabbed, defence was tight, offense flowed and Sri Lanka was on the way to victory. Yet, Nepal fought back gallantly. A little more gas during the third quarter would have provided them comfort at the end of gameplay.

Nepal had the basics right. Offensive plays with screens, hustle in the defence to grab the steals, boxing out to grab the rebounds but lacked the finer points. Their momentum from the first half dropped in the latter. The fast paced game which kept the opposition on their toes was missing which resulted in scoring 14 points in both the third and the final quarter. Perhaps if the free-throws were converted the story would have had a different plot.

Key Stats

Yellow = Sri Lanka            Green = Nepal 

Shooting Percentage – Sri Lanka`s field goal percentage stood at 36.84%, 21 shots converted out of 57 attempts. Not the best, but helped the lads to breathe avoiding submerging. Charith Perera`s little cameo of 09 points in his game time of 04:55 helped the Sri Lankans to walk into the comfort zone during the last few minutes. Nepal was not far behind, converting 19 out of 58, their percentage stood at 32.76%. The free-throws they missed would have made the deficit.

Rebounds – Sri Lanka topped the cards with 54 rebounds. With the height advantage it was not a surprise. Nepal managed 48. Sri Lanka did miss a host of it during the first half and Nepal was on top but coming into the middle of the second quarter, Sri Lanka dominated positioning themselves in the adequate spots which gave them a hassle free collect.

Sri Lanka`s fast breaks bought them 10 points while Nepal settled at 04. Sri Lanka scored 06 points from the second chances while Nepal only managed 04. 28 points in the game was scored in the paint for Sri Lanka while Nepal scored only 20 of their points in the paint.

Hustle for steals was squared by both sides with 06 steals each. Both teams forced each other for 16 turnovers, keeping each other occupied always. Nepal had everything intact, just the finer points and a little more boost to catch up to the deficit stats would have put Sri Lanka behind.

Top Performers

 Sri Lanka – Timothi Nithushan launched himself with nitrous. Topping the scorers list for Sri Lanka with 16 points, his trademark lay-ups were witnessed often. Apart from driving in, Timothi took his chances from the perimeter which he succeeded at crucial times. He grabbed 08 rebounds putting his height into full use while dishing out a couple of assists.   

Nepal – Ayush Singh top scored for Nepal with 23 points. His 23 points included 04 three pointers and four two pointers. Forced 04 turnovers while acquiring a steal. Singh also dished out an assist.