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St. Mirren’s veteran player-coach Iain MacLean kept up his record of never losing in a Scottish Cup Final after leading the Paisley outfit to a 61-51 victory over holders Edinburgh Kings at Meadowbank. Despite 28 points from Paddy Campbell, the capital outfit were unable to live with the hot-shooting Saints in the final quarter.
“It was ugly,” admitted MacLean, “but if you’d asked me beforehand if I’d take a win from an ugly game, I’d have accepted it. It's the best we;ve played all year defensively and that gave us the impetus we needed.
"Although no one person shone for us, if you look at the scoresheet, it will show how good a team performance that was.
Kings chances had been cruelly hampered 24 hours earlier when their leading scorer Laurie Costello had been ruled out of the senior showdown after twisting his ankle in his club’s 82-58 defeat in the Under 21 decider. Campbell valiantly tried his best to fill the gap but it proved too much for the capital outfit to overcome.
“Paddy was unbelievable for us,” praised the Kings chief. “But we didn’t have enough alternative threats to help him out. We relied too much on him, on his individual scoring. Laurie normally organises everyone else offensively but without him, we allowed ourselves to fall into a rut.
“I’m disappointed though that no-one else was able to produce their best. We only scored 51 points which is one of our worst performances this season. We’d hardly have beaten St. Mirren’s football team never mind their basketball team on that form.”
Former Edinburgh Rocks and Livingston stalwart Iain MacLean, now the player-coach of the Paisley outfit, kept up his impressive record of never losing in a domestic Cup final. Yet his charges were put under the cosh when Campbell sparked the Portobello-based Kings to a 12-0 run in the second period which put them 30-24 ahead.
Former Kings forward Gordon Smith sparked Saints back in front with a 16-3 spurt in the third but again it was Campbell who shone by scoring eight of ten points in a row for Edinburgh who then trailed 51-50 with less then three minutes left. It was as close as they came though and with the brilliant Campbell fouling out, St. Mirren fired the final seven points to seal victory.
“That was the critical point when he left,” admitted Costello. “The rest of the team were working hard to get possession and we had plenty of momentum up to that point. But Paddy was the only person to score a field goal for us in the second half. Without him, St. Mirren knew we had no-one else to step up.”
In the women’s final, it was Polonia Phoenix who came out on top in the all-Lothian tie with Edinburgh Kool Kats with George Swanson’s side cranking out a narrow 52-46 victory. However Polonia were made to sweat before making amends for their horrible display in the 2001 final as their city rivals recovered improbably from giving up the first 16 points of the game to produce a tense finale.
It was Polonia’s towering centre Lesley Jackson who sparked the early onslaught, scoring eight of her game-best 18 points tally in the first quarter. And although her early departure due to foul trouble sparked Edinburgh back into contention, she never believed that her side would capitulate.
“I knew the girls could step up,” said Jackson, sister of Kilmarnock goalkeeper Gordon Marshall. “It was a good team performance overall so losing one person wasn’t going to damage us. I was annoyed at myself for fouling out so early but thankfully it didn’t stop us from winning.”
It looked to be game, set and match to Phoenix after the first seven minutes but Kool Kats slowly found a route back into contention. “It has happened to us before, where we’ve had a big lead and lost it so no-one was going to get complacent,” stated Jackson , who spent the entire third quarter on the bench.
Without her towering presence, Edinburgh closed to 37-35 on a lay-up from captain Heather Holmyard late in the period but Polonia immediately responded with seven unanswered points to clinch the silverware, erasing the bitter memories of 12 months ago.
“Edinburgh did well to come back the way they did but perhaps we were up for it more than they were. We have a new bunch of girls in the team this year so it wasn’t something that was talked about before the Final. Those of us who did play in that match, we tried to put it out of our minds. This was a different game and a different venue. And a different outcome.”
Continental Airlines Scottish Cup Finals (Meadowbank)
Senior Men: St. Mirren 61 Edinburgh Kings 51,
Senior Women: Polonia 52 Edinburgh Kool Kats 46,
Cadette Women: St. Mirren 100 atc Highland 33,
Cadet Men: Troon 86 St. Mirren 72,
President’s Women: Grangemouth 52 Glasgow Storm 43,
Junior Women: Denny 91 Edinburgh Kool Kats 46,
Under 21 Men: Troon 82 Edinburgh Kings 58
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