Basketball: Peregrines swoop to snatch terrific final-game victory at Troon

EAST LOTHIAN Peregrines rounded off their topsy-turvy basketball season on a bright note by snatching a last-gasp 66-64 away win over Troon Tornadoes in the Scottish League on Saturday at Marr College – despite having only five players for the entire game.

It was only their second league win of a season in which they have had many near-misses.

"The boys were all brilliant," said captain Grant Gibson, who hit 27 points, while Cameron McGrain had 18, from six three-pointers for the East Lothian outfit.

Coach Marcos Hernandez was forced to suit up and play, along with Scott McDonald and Eoghan Dover, who scored 13 points including the winning basket with five seconds left when they were one point down. The win was all the more remarkable as the previous night they had gone down 95-72 away to Falkirk Fury at the Mariner Centre.

Polonia Phoenix, like Peregrines out of cup contention, ran amok at Wester Hailes yesterday to swamp Grampian Flyers 125-26 in the women's league, while their cadette women were on fire against Glasgow City, winning 81-23, with Hilary Wood contributing 18, Laura Kirkhouse 17, Mirren Summers 16 and Claire Paxton 15 in a remarkable spread of points.

City of Edinburgh's three Scottish Cup Finals teams, the senior and junior men and the senior women, all won against St Mirren with varying degrees of ease in their last outing before the finals at Pleasance next weekend.

Kings men were actually behind with two minutes 20 seconds left at Paisley's Lagoon Centre but then hit a purple patch to finish 81-73 winners and keep their unbeaten record in 2010.

The last team they lost to was St Mirren at Portobello on 17 October last year and coach Danny Costello was not too unhappy with the closeness of the result given that Kings had only seven players due to a clash with a Lothian League game at Portobello.

"It was important that we kept our focus as we look forward to Saturday's game against Falkirk," he said. Simon Flockhart had 24, Ed Rekis 20 – 15 in the second half – Laurie Costello 16 and Paddy Campbell 11 for Kings, while Nic Collins replied with 25 for Saints, who led 13-4 at the start.

Boroughmuir Blaze had three wins over the weekend to finish their season on an upbeat note, the juniors beating Dundee Sharks 83-51 before going on to defeat Glasgow City 84-60 away at Eastbank Academy yesterday and the cadets taming the Sharks 68-49 at Wester Hailes.