Nepal missed out on their first ever gold in international basketball losing 75-49 to Sri Lanka in the final of the first Saba Women’s Championship here at the Dashrath Stadium covered hall on Saturday.

Sri Lanka finished unbeaten in the tournament with Nepal’s only loss coming against them. Nepal gave a tough fight in the first quarter that saw them trail by four points (15-11) before Sri Lanka took away the game in the second. Nepal were 4-3 ahead at the start of first quarter but trailed thereafter in the entire game with Sri Lanka hardly making any mistake, converting most of their free shots lay-up chances.

Errandi Gallage tossed in 15 points for the Sri Lankans who clinched their maiden international title. Nepal coach Bikash Shahi, who was confident of winning the title prior to the tournament, was left ruing the missed chances. “The worst part was our girls were under pressure and let go the possession. We were neither better defensively nor offensively,” said Shahi. 

“It was a golden opportunity for us to win a maiden title but we let it slip. I don’t think we will get this chance again,” said Shahi who hoped to clinch gold after India pulled out of the tournament due to internal their problems. Shahi said Nepal’s major focus in women’s basketball now should be in having a strong bench. 

Sri Lanka coach Amath Tuan Murad was happy to lead the country to its first title in international basketball. “We were confident to win the title before the tournament had started because we had been training hard and playing frequently. We were playing a tough match of the tournament today and our girls’ played according to our plan,” said Murad. 

After the end of second quarter, Sri Lanka had a strong lead of 14 points (35-21). Premila Fernando ended up scoring 11 points in the game, while Kumarin Silva had 12 points for Sri Lanka.  Nepal had an improved game in the third quarter but they went on to miss seven free shots. Sri Lanka headed into the decider with a 12-point (52-40) cushion, 17 to that of 16 from Nepal. In a brief fightback at the start of the final quarter, Bhawana Lama’s two pointer reduced the deficit to nine points (55-46). 

However, Sri Lanka kept converting their chances and threw Nepal virtually out of the contest leading 63-46 with 5:09 minutes left on the clock. Anusha Malla was the stand out performer for Nepal as she scored eight points with seven rebound and six assists. Lama and Alisha Malla had nine points each. Sneha Shrestha, who had 15 rebounds, netted seven points. Luniva Singh had seven rebound and two assists.

Bhutan, meanwhile, signed off with their first victory of the tournament with a 61-29 rout of Bangladesh, who finished the tournament winless.  Pema Tshering scored 27 points for Bhutan. Maldives ended up third in the five-team tournament.