Buddies finally clinch the title after putting Blaze in their place
Craig Ritchie St Mirren senior men sealed their first championship in 18 years with a narrow victory over Boroughmuir Blaze.
The league-leading Saints played host to the second place east coasters in what was a title decider.
Chris Cleary opened the scoring, while Nick Collins and Chris Barron kept the points moving up the scoreboard.
A Colin Railley and Dale Grieve long-range double act rounded off the period with 26 points.
But it just wasn’t enough as the Saints defence opened up and gave away score after score as the visitors helped themselves to a 32-point total in the opening 10 minutes.
Long-range shooting was even for the period, with the Blaze producing more energy to exploit the Saints’ defence.
The second period, in spite of plenty of changes in personnel for the Paisley men, produced more of the same, with another 26-point total from Collins, Cleary and Barron.
The Blaze did the same and turned in a creditable 29 points for the half-time lead at 61-52.
It was a high- scoring encounter, given the previous week’s efforts at almost half those points at the same stage.
The half- time team talk pointed out the shortcomings and it wasn’t long before Saints turned it around.
In what can only be described as a blitz that the visitors simply failed to respond to, the Saints cranked up the pressure.
Cleary bagged 16 points in the period, with Euan Glass draining the three-pointers.
A high energy defence to offence from young Fergus Harte and Barron had the points piling in.
Collins, coming off the bench after a rest, kept the pressure on, adding another 10 points to his personal tally.
At the nine-minute mark, Saints led 92- 71 and the visitors could be seen to be wilting under the Saints onslaught.
A last- gasp three-pointer from Blaze served notice they were not quite finished, but, at 92-74, Saints thought otherwise.
The final period had Saints in control as the bubble burst on the visitors’ high energy assault.
Blaze had little to show in the way of pace and settled for long range shooting, which did cut into the Saints’ lead.
In spite of the lead going as low as six points with two minutes left, a final scoring flurry from Dave Johnston, Cleary, Collins and Barron settled the match and the championship at 107-99.
Saints were led on the night by the Commonwealth Games duo of Collins and Cleary with 32 points each, Barron on 13 and Glass on eight — that included his back- to- back third quarter three-pointers to open the flood gates.