Royal win Basketball Battle with S. Thomas’ by five points

BASKETBALL: It was a battle-royal indeed – this basketball match between the Royalists and Thomians at the Thomian courts last week. It was the 9th Royal-Thomian encounter and neither side wanted to give-in to the other.

The ding-dong battle was witnessed right through the match and at the finish-that’s at the end of the fourth quarter Royalists won by 54 points to 49 by the Thomians. So, Royal took the D.S. Senanayake Challenge Cup.

Any Royal-Thomian encounter brings out the best from the two teams and this game was no exception. End of the first quarter Royal led by 15 points to 12.

Came the second quarter, the Thomians scored more points, but yet Royal led 24 points to the Thomians 22.

So, a real battle was on with the Royalists leading by a razor-thin margin of just 2 points.

But the Royalists had extra energy in the team to forge ahead in the third quarter and they had run upto 40 points, while the Thomians got to 28.It turned out to be a ding-dong battle in the deciding fourth quarter and the Royalists seemed to have that extra-bit of energy to last the pace, though the Thomians caught up. Royal finally hit the winning post with 54 points and S. Thomas’ were just five points behind with 49.

It was undoubtedly a fine match.

Michael Alphonsus of S. Thomas’ was picked as the best offensive player, Ruzwan Rizvi and Kasun Udayangoda (Royal) were awarded the trophies for the best defensive player and best player overall. Buddhika Kumudapperuma and Ajith Kumara – two referees from the Sri Lanka Basketball Referees Association officiated.