Lalitpur, September 11

Liverpool International College and Golden Gate International College advanced to the final of the Ncell Inter-college Basketball Tournament here at the Nepali Army Sports Complex today.

Liverpool defeated Morgan College 47-40 riding on Ashish Basnet’s 17 points, while Golden Gate came from behind to beat Prime College 47-34 with Khukhen Lama netting 19 points for the winning side. Samir Niraula of Liverpool and Lama of Golden Gate were named the best players in the semi-final matches. The final is slated for Saturday.

In the first semi-final match, Liverpool opened with a 15-8 lead in the first quarter, while Morgan cut the deficit to two points when they took the second period 10-5. Both the teams scored nine points each in the third period, taking the match to the thrilling final period. Basnet and Niraula played key roles in the final quarter as Liverpool scored 18 points and restricted Morgan to 13 to win the match by seven points.

The second semi-final match was also entertaining as Golden Gate and Prime exchanged leads. Prime threw away the lead as many as two times before Golden Gate bounced back in final quarter to book a berth in the final. Golden Gate trailed 6-10 in first period before they levelled the scores at 20-all by taking second period 14-10. Prime opened up a two-point lead in third quarter after they won it 8-6 but Liverpool dominated the final period 21-6 to record a comprehensive victory.