Sandy Sutherland's round up of a fantastic weekend for the club. An abridged version appeared in the Evening News on 28/3/11.
The City of Edinburgh Basketball Club are celebrating the most successful season in their 23-year history after capturing a record five trophies in the Scottish Cup Finals at Edinburgh University at the weekend to add to three Scottish League titles and two National Play-Offs.
By winning the senior trophies on Saturday, Edinburgh Kings and Edinburgh Kool Kats both completed a season's treble of honours, having already won the Scottish League and National Play-Offs.
Kings cadets beat Troon Tornadoes 57-44 to win the Under-16 trophy on Saturday and Kings juniors (u-18) trounced Troon 66-36 yesterday to complete the men's monopoly, the Chairman's Cup having been bagged on Friday night.
Though Kings fans were not complaining, what is worrying for the game as a whole was the size of the wins. Kings swamped St Mirren 76-49 in the men's final, after leading 21-8 and 48-19 at half-time. Saints were unable to subdue their target threat Michael Kirkpatrick, who scored 17 to add to the scorching 41, including nine three-pointers, he tallied in the Scottish Universities Challenge, while Kings captain Paddy Campbell had 14, 10 in the second half, a solid Simon Flockhart 12 and eight rebounds and Lee Reilly 10, all in the first quarter. "Our defence was brilliant in the first half," said coach Danny Costello.
More nervy than cool, and without converting a single three-pointer on the new-style court, Kool Kats beat holders Glasgow Rocks 58-51 to complete their treble.But they had to withstand sustained pressure through the last quarter, with the brunt taken by point guard Emma Findlay and Charlotte King, who played the entire 40 minutes, and near-veteran Tracey Phillips, who played 36 minutes for eight rebounds and five steals.King top-scored with 18 and took 14 rebounds, Rowan Bell added 12 of each, and Findlay 10 points. "I don't know why they were so nervous and our shooting was awful but we got there in the end," commented a relieved Graham Gunn, who along with Costello should share Coach of the Year.
Though Grant MacKay's "double double" of 17 points and 10 rebounds would have won him the MVP award and captain Niall Mackle's late flurry of threes gave him top scoring spot with 19, it took an inspired third quarter spell from unsung Neil Rowan to open up the junior men's final, Rowan's two threes stretching the gap from five to 13. Matt Wilcox added 15 points and Ross Paterson 11 rebounds to help coach Doug Reilly to his fourth win in five junior finals.
Neil Rowan also had 10 points in the cadet final in which coach Jim Wright's team beat Tornadoes 57-44, while Gregor Gray top-scored with 17, Andrew Whyte had 14 and Rian Neill 11 and 16 rebounds.
