Highlanders are put to the sword

Craig Ritchie

St Mirren Under- 18 men floored the Flyers as the they marched into the next round of the Scottish Cup.

Straight from the tip-off St Mirren showed their intent with Gregg Merrill hammering home a threepointer within seconds of the game beginning.

Saints ran the game in the first quarter with the Flyers unable to cope with the speed of the Paisley team.

Points were shared throughout the team in the first quarter with some solid passing that left the Flyers floundering.

The Aberdeen team relied heavily on three points as they couldn’t break the St Mirren defence.

A lay-off from Brad Low gave Euan Burch a rebound, and a superb threepointer from Ben Mitchell following a defence- splitting pass from Robbie Stevenson gave the Saints a comfortable lead in the first quarter.

The second period saw St Mirren making heavy weather of their opponents.

Grampian comprehensively outscored the Saints and it was clear to see they thought they could take the win.

A catalogue of sloppy passing and missed basket attempts saw St Mirren hand the advantage to the Flyers, who outscored the Saints by 27 points to 16.

Coach Stevenson read the riot act at half-time and, thankfully for the travelling Saints fans, it had the desired effect as an up-to-speed St Mirren started getting the points back on the board.

A tap in from Birch from a Stevenson rebound got things started, before Stevenson then produced a stunning scoring display by netting 16 points in the quarter as the Flyers finally realised what they were up against.

The third quarter produced solid defence and slick passing to see the Saints stretch their lead to 67-53.

It may have been the lead they had or the long journey, but the Saints slowed up in the fourth quarter and the Flyers started to drag themselves back into the match.

The Buddies had only managed eight points when coach Stevenson called time out with just under four minutes to play.

This managed to nip any momentum the Flyers were gaining and re-energised the Saints who saw out the game 82-69 winners.