Basketball: Seylan men and women win first round games

Seylan Bank started the 26th Mercantile League Tournament 2016 with a bang when its Women’s and Men’s teams registering victories in the preliminary round over Nations Trust Bank and Standard Chartered Bank respectively at the Henry Pedris Basketball Courts on the opening day. 

Seylan Women playing in the ‘A’ Division scored a close 46-42 win over Nations Trust Bank after the scores stood 25 all at the half time. 

T. Sivalingam (10), Jayaliya Kumari (8) and G.M.N. Jayaweera (8) top scored for Seylan Bank while Watsala Dananjali (16), Niroshini Paiva (12) and N. De Silva (10) were the main scorers for the losers. 

In another preliminary round match Seylan men playing in the Men’s ‘D’ Division had things on their own in defeating Standard Chartered Bank 70-43 after a 29-19 lead in the short whistle. 

In the second half Seylan kept on invading the opponent’s territory with a fine pass and shoot display headed by R. Mario (17), V. Nandaka (14) and M. Niranjan (12). 

For Standard Chartered Bank M. Niranjan (12) and R. Mohamed (28) played the best. 

Abans Group registered an easy 61-31 victory over UB Finance in a Group ‘A’ match after a 29-18 lead in the first half. 

Abans men were spearheaded by Fritz Roy (19) and Bathiya Prabath (14) led the way for them to a 61-36 win. 

A.S.J. Seneviratne and Joy Gregory played the best for the losers.