Scottish Schools Open Boys Cup Final, held at Grangemouth Sports Complex Wednesday 20th March 2013.
Arbroath High School v James Gillespie’s School, Edinburgh
Arbroath High School’s Senior Boys Team were in confident mood going in to the National Cup Final but their hopes were dashed right from the outset as their opponents were quickly off their mark and produced a scintillating display of offensive basketball – their outside shooting was outstanding as they hit perimeter shot after shot with one player in particular who was virtually unstoppable as they raced to a huge 30-10 lead after only ten minutes played. Arbroath tried everything to counter this but their opponents continued to convert from the outside and by the end of the first half had stretched their lead to 59-30 with the game out of the reaches of the High School boys.
In the second half they continued to fight valiantly and actually won this period 37-35 but the damage had already been done in the opening two periods of the match.
At the end the Edinburgh team fully deserved their first win at this level of competition and were more than worthy 94-67 victors.
Among the pluses for Arbroath was the display of young guard Daniel Fraser who ended up top scorer with 16 individual points. The big three of captain Nicky Sim, who was injured in the second half and was withdrawn, fell way below the awesome displays he delivered in the earlier rounds. Jeb Spink and Duncan Pattullo were also closely guarded throughout the game and were prevented having their normal dominating influence on the game but they refused to give up and battled on right to the final buzzer. The youngest member of the starters, Kailin Brannigan had a stellar performance and pitched in with 9 personal points to help his team.
Coach John Grant was bitterly disappointed with the defeat but had to admit that on the day the other team definitely deserved to win the game.
“They shot the ball as well as any team I ever seen in all my years of coaching – one of their boys hit 7out of 9 three pointers in the first half – unbelievable percentage shooting at any level. Eight out of twelve of their boys also play for the country’s number one club team – Boroughmuir Blaze and their depth of talent was evident as they maintained their high level of performance throughout the game. However, our team can hold their heads high, as we have beaten some big teams to get here and it is the fifth time we have reached this final – only two other schools in the history of the event have ever done this – I would like to thank all the members of the team for getting us to this stage of the competition – they should be very proud of themselves.
Scorers:
Daniel Fraser 16
Jeb Spink 15
Nicky Sim 13
Duncan Pattullo 10
Kailin Brannigan 9
Kerr Feighan 4
