Colombo District win both titles

by Lal Gunesekera

Colombo District BA won both the men's and women's titles at the Junior National Championships of the Sri Lanka Basketball Federation (SLBF) at the Depot Police Courts, Bambalapitiya last Wednesday.

In the men's final, Colombo beat Puttalam DBA by 74 points to 55 after being led 31-36 at half-time. The main scorer for Colombo was Shanaka Perera with 22 points helped by Dishan Wille (14), Chamath Serasinghe (13) and Darshaka Bandara (12), while the main scorers for Puttalam were Malinda Fernando (15), Virantha Bastian (11) and Chathura Serasinghe (10).

Colombo who also won the women's title beating Sri Lanka Schools BA by a single digit (49-48) led 25-24 at the 'breather' and the two match winners were Solanga Gunawijaya (20) and Rasuni Karunatilleke (12) together with Sashikala Liyanage, while the top scorer for Schools was Anjali Ekanayake (13) helped by Shanali Weerasuriya (9) and Niroshini Daiva (8).

The men's Consolation final was won by Gampaha District BA beating Sri Lanka Schools BA 57-56 after leading 30-29 at half time, while Galle DBA beat Kandy DBA 41-36 to win the women's Consolation final after being led 14-19 at half time. Shanaka Perera (Colombo District BA) and Solanga Gunawijaya (also Colombo DBA) were adjudged the Most Valuable Players in the men's and women's competition.

Eight men's cagers and six women's cagers too were picked for the All-Star awards. They were: Men - Shanaka Perera (Colombo) Dishan Wille (Colombo), Darshaka Bandara (Colombo), Chamath Serasinghe (Colombo), Malintha Fernando (Puttalam), Chathura Serasinghe (Puttalam), Roshan Fernando (Schools) and Sanketha Jayaratne (Gampaha), Women:- Solanga Gunawijaya (Colombo), Rasuni Karunaratne (Colombo), Sashikala Liyanage (Colombo), Shanali Weerasuriya (Schools), Anjali Ekanayake (Schools) and Sulochana Rathnasekera (Schools).