Commercial Credit and Finance Plc ‘A’ clinch MSBA cager crown

Commercial Credit and Finance Plc ‘A’ turned on their boosters at the precise moment to zoom past the fancied DFCC Bank to clinch the Ram Ratnavale Memorial Trophy presented to the winner of the Men’s ‘A’ Division knockout final, with an elegant 55-50 win, at the 11th MSBA Basketball Tournament, which concluded at the Edward Henry Pedris Stadium under lights on Friday. 

DFCC, which is packed with several national players including skipper Prageeth Pushpakumara, Terrence Neydoff, Tharindu Sankalpa and Roshan Fernando, kept the youthful and rampaging Commercial Credit players under control, as they led 12-10  at the end of the first quarter before closing out the opening half leading 30-27.

Commercial Credit also sports four national players, namely Thimothi Nithushan, Gayan de Croos, Sanjeewa Kulamina and Clinton Stallone, all of whom got their act together and scored 14 points against DFCC’s 11 in the third quarter to tie things up at 41 apiece.

As DFCC seemed to run short of gas in the crucial last quarter, the brilliant Stallone switched into top gear to take Commercial Credit ‘A’ to a memorable 55-50 win.

DFCC paid the price for not making use of the ample open shots that came their way in the fourth quarter. 

Top Scorers: Clinton Stallone (18), Gayan de Croos (10) and Sanjeewa Kulamina (10) for the winners; Prageeth Pushpakumara (12) and Roshan Fernando (10) for the losers.  

Channa Perera, Gayan Buddhika and Christopher Kumarasinghe refereed. 

In the preceding Men’s ‘B’ Division Final, Dialog Axiata, led by Rimaz Hassan, hung on for a heart-stopping 46-44 win over the MAS Holdings ‘Reds’ in extra time. 

The game swung   like a pendulum from the start, MAS “Reds” attack  more cohesive via  skipper, Andrew Alphonsus, Ex- National players,  V.S. Sundaralingam and Roshel Mendis, as they led in the 1st quarter 13/11 and at half time, 19/17.

Dialog’s inform players, Vajira Kumarasinghe , Raviraj Wickramasinghe and Dhanuka Muthukudaarachchi combined  effectively as they came back strongly to  take the  3rd quarter, 29/28.

Shanaka Weerasinghe joined the Dialog party, playing a fine up and down game to freeze the scorers, 39/39 at full time. The game went into extra time  and  skipper Rimaz Hassan once again marshaled his troops well to take Dialog Axiata home, 46/44.

Top Scorers : Shanaka Weerasinghe (15) and Dhanuka Muthukudarachchi  (13) for the  winners; Andrew Alphonsus  (11) and V.S. Sundaralingam  (13) for the losers. 

Ranil Suranga, Charitha Dodangoda and Thusith Yatigammana refereed. 

Old Sebastianite, former National Basketball Captain and Head of Selection SLBF, Chaminda De Alwis was the Chief Guest;  he along with MSBA officials,  Vice Patron, Roshan Samidon  Secretary, Mafaz Mohideen and Committee Member Yohan Dole gave away the awards.