Nepal stun Sri Lanka in SABA Women’s Cager Tourney

Nepal delivered a stunning blow as they defeated the defending champions Sri Lanka 55-49 in their Women’s South Asian Basketball Association (SABA) Championship second match played at the Social Centre in Male City, Maldives on Tuesday.

Nepal, who were the runners-up in the inaugural edition in 2016 held in Kathmandu, produced a fine all-round performance to lead from start to finish and to record their first win of the tournament.

After their 47-51 defeat at the hands of the Maldives, in the curtain raiser match of the tournament, Nepal came back firing all cylinders to mesmerise the Sri Lankan team with a clinical performance.

Nepal made their intentions clear from the start and took the initiative to lead 15-12 at the end of the first quarter and they went on to further increase their lead to a formidable 32-21 at half time.

After the turnaround Sri Lanka produced an improved performance and made a valiant effort to reduce the gap through the efforts of Sasanthi Samarasinghe (12), Anjalee Ekanayake (12), Epciba Washington (11) and Taniya Perera (17).

In fact, Sri Lanka won the third quarter 12-11 and took the fourth and final quarter 16-12 but the early lead that they conceded to their opponents made a huge impact in the ultimate result.

In addition, the Lankans managed to collect only four three-point baskets from their 35 attempts while in contrast, Nepal were successful with nine three-point baskets from 33 attempts.