Saints lose to Rocks but can hold their heads high
BEN RAMAGE
St Mirren’s senior men gave an excellent account of themselves when they faced off with professional giants Glasgow Rocks.
The friendly encounter at the Lagoon gave the hosts a chance to test themselves against the country’s best players.
And while the visitors ultimately proved their class, the Paisley side can be proud of how they acquitted themselves against the British Basketball League competitors.
The Saints headed into the clash fresh from their exhilarating last-second win against Falkirk Fury.
The Rocks opened the scoring through Lithuanian Tadas Rinkunas, with Scot Ali Fraser and American Greg Pryor contributing followed by a three-pointer by Great Britain star Gareth Murray.
The home side answered back with captain Nick Collins scoring ten points in the quarter and Adam Hammerschmidt scoring a three-pointer against his old team.
The lead extended to 20-6 but narrowed to 22-13 by the end of the quarter.
Saints came out strong in the second quarter with Chris Cleary scoring a trio of three-pointers on his way to 13 points in the quarter, a feat that saw Glasgow lead by just a single point.
The Rocks had the lead 47-35 at the break and the hosts knew it would take an almighty effort to keep pace as the match progressed.
In the second half, the Paisley side scored quickly and briefly closed the match to 45-41 before Pryor scored eight points in a low-scoring quarter.
The Rocks had now assumed a bigger lead 5943 heading into the final quarter.
Saints’ Fergus Harte and Ben Mitchell defended resiliently but the team were struggling to make it count at the other end as the clock ticked down.
In the final period the Rocks had excellent outside shooting from Scots Fraser Malcolm, Kieran Allan and Alex Geddes and the home side struggled to keep up with their devastating pace.
While the Rocks unsurprisingly ran out winners, the Saints were left holding their heads high after matching their professional counterparts for large spells of the match.
The Saints were led in the scoring charts by Cleary with 17 points, Collins bagged 12 points and Hammerschmidt contributed 11.
Chris Barron controlled the offence and scored nine points, with contributions also made by Harte, Eden Duff, Ali Salimy and Stephen Murdoch.
The hosts were supported by a great turnout to see the professionals in action and were entertained by excellent spells of basketball provided by both teams.