Basketball: Troon Tornadoes in two cup finals

Mar 25 2011 by Mike WIlson, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

THE Scottish basketball national competition season comes to an end this weekend with the Scottish Cup finals.

And Troon Tornadoes are represented in two out of the three men’s finals.

Tornadoes junior and cadet teams take on Edinburgh Kings in their respective finals at the Peak Leisure centre in Stirling.

The two Tornadoes teams had made the running in the national leagues right up until the final weekends of the season and will anxious to make amends.

In the third national competition - the post season playoffs - both the juniors and cadets came up short. The Cadets lost to Boroughmuir Blaze and the juniors to StMirren.

Tornadoes juniors had won the previous three fixtures against St Mirren, two wins in the league and one in the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup, but knew that Saints would be a dangerous opponent.

Saints raced to an 11-3 lead, before a Tornadoes time out upset their rhythm and Troon fought back with nine points from Scott Armstrong holding Saints to 25-23 lead.

This should have served as a warning to Tornadoes, but they did not heed it and the Paisley team turned the heat up and destroyed them in the second quarter with 27 points and only four against to lead 52-27.

Tornadoes came out fighting in the second half and with three three pointers from Sam Jack and Joshua McGillivray chipping in 10 points, won the period by 10 points to pull it back to 67-52.

Tornadoes got as close as nine points, with Sam Jack again shooting well, but the effort to claw back the poor second period took its toll and Saints re-asserted their authority.

Although Troon won the last quarter by a point it was too little too late as Saints closed it out 83-69. St Mirren went on to beat league champions Edinburgh Kings in the final, the team who Tornadoes play in the Scottish Cup final.

Team: Ian Burns, Scott Armstrong (9), Sam Jack (25), Craig Moffat, Jordan McIlwraith (9), Harvey Baker-Flanagan (4), Chris Millar (2), J McGillivray (20), Hamish Forsythe.