Basketball: MAS Reds ground SriLankan Airlines to reach final

MAS Holdings Reds grounded SriLankan Airlines with a 53-37 victory to enter the final of the Men’s ‘B’ Division at the 11th Ram Rathnavel Knockout Basketball Tournament 2016 at the Henry Pedris Sports Complex. 

MAS Holdings Reds dominated play from the start with fast open play where as the SriLankan Airlines took time to take off giving ample opportunities to the winners to score. 

Having led 25-17 at the half time MAS Holdings maintained their dominance to finish the game in their favour with a final score of 53-37. 

E. Weerasinghe was the play maker to be the highest scorer with 15 points while V.S. Sundaralingam with 14 points and skipper A. Alphonsus scoring 10 points had a big hand in their team’s success. 

A. Jayakody (10) and L. Rajapaksa (7) played best for the SriLankan Airlines. 

In a another match at the same venue its again a team from MAS Holding Blacks maintained their prowess in the tournament beating Hirdaramani Industries 39-30 to advance to the Men’s ‘D’ Division final.
 
The match gave the spectators the real taste of fast and open basketball as both sides matched each other in every department of the game.

MAS Blacks led a close 21-19 in the first half and went down fighting to a 30-39 defeat. 

M. Fernando (9), H. Kavisha (7) and M. Jawad (6) made some good moves to be the highest scorers for the winners while S. Angelo (8) and O. Kannangara (7) played best for Hirdaramani. 

Union Bank making their first appearance in the in the tournament advanced to the finals in the Men’s ‘E’ Division scoring a 66-31 win over IFS R&D International. 

Playing a fast run and pass game the bankmen never gave the opponents a chance to settle and ended the first half 40-8. 

R&D International gave a better performance in the second half with N. Nadun (17) and B. Wasala (6) helped their team to collect 31 points at the close. 

For the winning bankers D. Wijendra (16), T. Clifford (15) and H. Wijeratne (9) were outstanding. 

Earlier on, Hatton National Bank advanced to the Final of Women’s ‘A’ Division beating Seylan Bank 62/42 and Softlogic Holdings qualified for the Men’s ‘D’ Division defeating Standard Chartered bank 55/54. 

Due to the prevailing unfavourable weather conditions the continuation of the tournament will be postponed and the re-start dates will be announced as soon as possible.