Inverness-based basketball club Highland Bears reach Scottish Cup final for first time in over 20 years after upsetting Boroughmuir Blaze in semi finals
Highland Bears’ under-16 girls have reached the Scottish Cup finals for the first time in 23 years.
The Inverness-based club were the underdogs going into their semi final against unbeaten league leaders Boroughmuir Blaze, but triumphed 71-60 in Edinburgh to book their spot in next February’s showcase.
Having last reached the finals in 2002, there was also a measure of revenge for the Bears against the side who knocked them out at the semi final stage last year, and who beat the Highlanders by 23 points earlier this season.
The first period was a very tight affair with the home side with the early five-point lead after three minutes, before the Bears’ dominant centre Chloe Sanderson (10 points) got into her stride to pull the visitors back into the game and eventually take the lead 19-17 at the end of the period.
An early basket for the home side at the start of the next period was a false dawn as the Bears power forward, Isla Devlin (15 points) retook the lead with the visitors restricting the Blaze to only a further four points while amassing 17 of their own to lead 36-23 at half time.
The Bears coaching staff took the opportunity to install further confidence in the players and remind them to stick their team-play philosophy.
This had the desired effect as Olivia Maclennan and Eva Skinner shored up the defence while Esmee Wilson and Emma MacMillan kept the ball moving about the team waiting for the right time to feed it to the open player for the assist.
As Emily Seago (13 points) hit a three-pointer the Bears lead was stretched to 22 points before closing the third quarter with what seemed a comfortable lead of 54-35.
Blaze, to their credit, were not giving up easily, and went on a 9-3 run in the opening two minutes before another dominant 10-2 run to bring the score to within five points midway through the last period.
A second Bears time-out was all that was needed to calm the fears down, enabling Lucy Sanderson to demonstrate her protentional with some controlled ball handling.
Along with a stellar performance from Grace Alexander – who led all scorers with 33 points – the visitors were more than deserving winners much to the delight of the large travelling support.
It was almost a double cup success for the Bears club, as their under-18 girls team only just lost by three points in their own semi final, going down 68-65 away the Gladiators in Glasgow the day before.
