Under-13 Boys Win Inter-International Schools Basketball

This has been our Basketball teams’ most successful year ever. The Under-17 and Under-19 Boys’ teams both finished 3 rd in their Inter-International Schools tournaments, while the Under-15 Boys and Girls both reached the semi-finals of their competitions in October. To cap this off, in the Under-13 tournament in May, the Girls reached the semi-final and the Boys won the championship, after defeating Gateway College, Colombo in a nail-biting final.

The Girls qualified for the semi-final after comfortable wins over CIS, Kandy and Lyceum, Ratnapura in the group stage. Their best match was a competitive game against Lyceum, Nugegoda, which they lost to a ‘golden goal’ after the scores were level after extra time.

After reaching the final in 2023 and losing by just one point to the eventual finalists last year, our Boys’ team were one of the tournament favourites. After defeating Horizon College and Burhani Serendib by a combined score of 87-9, they faced a key match against the British School: a comfortable 40-21 win meant they qualified top of their group for the knock-out matches. Victories over Asian International School and Lyceum, Wattala took them through to the final.

The real challenge awaited: reigning champions, Gateway, looking for a clean sweep of all the Boys’ titles this year. A strong start left the scores level at 7-7 at the end of the first quarter but Gateway’s greater size began to tell and they led 18-10 at half-fime. The game seemed headed in only one direction. Our Boys were not, however, overawed by their opponents or the occasion. In a real team effort, they began to fight back in the 3 rd quarter, with two baskets in close succession by Kai John helping to level the score at 18-18. With tension mounting and every basket closely contested, the match ended 26-26. In overtime, Gateway had a one-point lead with 15 seconds on the clock. A pre- planned move gave Captain Aarish Hirdaramani space to shoot, the ultimate clutch shot. Despite the pressure and the odds being against him, he buried the shot to seal a famous victory, and pandemonium ensued in a packed crowd.

The victory was a true team effort: six players contributed points in the final. The Head of Sports of the host school, CIS, said after the game that the Boys had won as they played as a team, while their opponents had relied on a couple of tall players. Congratulations to Tien Malalasekera, who was named Best Defensive Player, and Aarish, who was chosen as the Most Valuable Player.

Boys’ Under-13 Inter-International Schools’ Basketball