Scotland beat their demons and slay the Welsh dragons

Published on Thursday 19 June 2008 10:32

SCOTLAND showed a big improvement from their narrow opening win over Malta when they defeated Wales 71-45 in the ActivCity Euro C Basketball Championships at the Pleasance Sports Hall, Edinburgh University last night to book their place in the Top Four cross-overs on Saturday.

"Maybe we did blow a few cobwebs away in that first game but our defence was much better, although we'll have to step it up again against Andorra, who'll pose a different sort of challenge," said Scotland coach Iain Maclean.

Scotland will play Andorra in the last of their group games at 7.00pm tonight and victory should give them an easier semi-final against the second team from the other group containing Moldova and Azerbaijan, who were due to tip off in their match at noon today.

"The defensive effort set the tempo and we completely dominated the defensive boards but we can still do better – our offences are still improving but then the games so far have almost been like our game preparation," added Maclean, who again used all 12 players, all of whom scored.

Laurie Costello led the Scots scoring with ten points while Kevin Anderson, Roni Gordon and Keith Bunyan all had nine, while a slightly below par skipper Garreth Murray had seven points, five rebounds and four turn-overs.

Mike Gregory was the only visitor in double figures with 14 points.

For Scotland Gordon had 14 rebounds, nine in the first half and was a dominating presence under the basket. With Ike Attah pulling down ten rebounds and Simon Flockhart eight, the Scots enjoyed a massive 67-43 advantage on the boards.

Last night's game was a total contrast to the first 58-49 win against Malta with the first quarter a dour if not dire struggle after which Scotland led 12-7.

Then came the break-out with the hosts going on a 25-1 streak against the luckless Welsh, who were in early foul trouble.

Costello, Gordon and Attah did well in this spell which was rounded off by a Bunyan three-pointer. At half-time Scotland led 41-18 and, despite a few more hiccups, went on to complete a comfortable and comforting win which takes the pressure off the coach.

But Welsh coach Steve Williams was naturally less happy: "We competed for three quarters of the game but lost concentration and intensity in the second quarter and made them look great. We recovered in the second half." Malta meanwhile appeared to blow their chance of an upset win over Andorra and a semi-final place when they gave away an unsporting foul while chasing the game against the tiny Pyrenees enclave, who won 55-52.

San Marino gave Azerbaijan a surprisingly close game, going down only 69-75, which suggests that Moldova, 97-54 winners over lowly Gibraltar, might just cause an upset today and become favourites to reach the final.