Lalitpur, September 7

Prime College, Times International College, Liverpool International College and Learning Realm International School advanced to the quarter-finals of the Ncell U-18 Inter-college Basketball Tournament at the Nepali Army Sports Complex here today.

The four teams joined Golden Gate International College and Morgan International College in the last eight of the tournament organised by Ncell under the auspices of Nepal Basketball Association. In the seventh-day matches, Nischal Maharjan’s 19 points guided Prime to a 43-39 victory over Times, while  Golden Gate thrashed NASA College riding on 15 points from Khukhen Lama. Also, Liverpool edged past LRI 59-55 riding on 29 points from Ashish Basnet.

In the first match of the day, Prime opened with a 10-8 lead in the first quarter, while the low-scoring second period saw Times going ahead by one point after they took the quarter 8-5. Prime dominated the third period when they scored 20 points and restricted Times to just eight to open up 11-point lead going into the final quarter.

Times took the fourth and final quarter by 15-8 but the damage had been already done and they lost the match by four points. Prayush Shrestha of Prime won the best player’s award. Prime advanced to the quarter-final as Group C winners, while Times made it to the knock-out round as runners-up despite the loss.

Golden Gate, who were already in the quarter-finals, dominated the match against NASA from the beginning and never looked back. Golden Gate took 17-point lead by the end of two quarters as they scored 23 and 18 points in the first two periods respectively, while NASA managed 12 points each. Golden Gate took the third period 15-14 before registering a 21-5 victory in the final quarter. Khukhen Lama of Golden Gate was named the best player of the match. Xavier will take on CCRC on Tuesday which will decide the second and last team in last eight from Group D.

In the last match of the day, LRI made a bright start taking the first period 18-13 before Liverpool bounced back to register the victory. Liverpool cut the deficit to one point after they won the second quarter 22-18 and levelled the scores by winning the third period 10-9. Liverpool then took the final quarter 14-10 to win the match and advance to the quarter-finals as Group A winners. Despite the loss, LRI entered the last eight as runners-up.

Liverpool’s Basnet, who tossed in 29 points, was named the player-of-the-match. Morgan have already made it to the quarters from Group B and the match between GEMS College and White House College will decide the another team from the pool.