Basketball: Tornadoes double up for Scottish Cup finals

Feb 18 2011 by Mike WIlson, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

TROON Tornadoes junior and cadet teams booked their place in their respective Scottish Cup finals but found the going tough.

The junior team beat National League Division Two side Grampian Flyers 90-69 and now meet Edinburgh Kings in the final in April.

Flyers took an early lead but with Jordan McIlwraith producing some good outside shooting, Tornadoes led led 29-26.

Flyers edged the second period13-12 to trail 41-39 at the break. Joshua McGillivray then hit 15 points in the quarter to open a 70-59 lead.

The final quarter was dominated by Tornadoes. Sam Jack hit some big shots while Scott Armstrong got on the end of some steals and fast break baskets.

Team: I Burns, S Armstrong (16 pts), S Jack (13), C McQuade, J McIlwraith (22), H Baker-Flanagan, C Millar, J McGillivray (29), Hamish Forsythe

The cadet men made it a double when they beat Glasgow Rens43-40. Captain Joshua McGillivray scored Troon’s first 10 points, and 13 of their 14 first quarter points as they led 14-11.

Rens hit back for a 28-27 half time lead. Tornadoes stepped up their defence during the third quarter, with forward Gregory McMillan doing a solid job on offensive threat Ali Salimy.

Tornadoes led 36-34 going into the final period. Hamish Forsythe sprung to life to give them some much needed offence and scored their last four points of the quarter, including two free throws under massive pressure.

Team: Allan Gebbie, Mark Gebbie, Greg Austin, Craig Boyce, Craig Moffat, Gordon Hill, Craig McIntyre, Hamish Forsythe, Sam Paterson, Gregory McMillan, Joshua McGillivray (captain, 26 pts).

Tornadoes senior men crushed Glasgow Rocks 80-48 in a rearranged national league game. They were able to go with a smaller line-up and with their centres also being relatively quick, they applied great defensive pressure.

Team: Chris Bombani, Malcolm Morrison (16 pts), Scott Frew (10), Ifadade Thomas, Donald Sampley, Jonny Pettit (10), Euan Campbell (captain, 10), Stuart Ramsey, Alexi Zyhzhyn, Fraser Smith.

On Friday, Tornadoes host a much taller Falkirk Fury at the Citadel (tip-off 8.15pm). On Saturday, Fury are also the visitors in the cadet and junior games at Marr College.