Scotland men got their first medal in the European Small Countries Basketball Championship since Edinburgh 2008 when the squad won bronze.
On his return home last night Head Coach Iain Maclean said:- “The players are certainly disappointed, but we should concentrate on the positives of which there were many. We’ve a core group of dedicated, hard-working players who gave their all in every game and have gained some valuable experience as well as some harsh lessons.”
Scotland were drawn in Group B with Malta and Wales and had their opening game against Malta on 7th July. On paper this would be a tough game for the Scots particularly when Malta have Samuel Daguara a 2.23m Centre!
In the opening quarter, it was Scotland who made a promising start with a 6 nil run in the first two minutes. However, Malta were able to pull it back and opened up a 23-13 lead at the end of the quarter with Scotland struggling to make their shots. The opening five minutes of the second quarter was a fairly even affair with neither team able to dominate the game and the score at 31-25 to Malta. However the final minutes of the second quarter saw the Scots stretch into the lead and closed the quarter out with a 2 point advantage 37-39. Q3 was a period of mini runs with the lead changing 5 times before Malta were able to squeeze out a five point lead at the end of the quarter, 58-53.
The game was set for a tight finish in Q4 and once again neither team could open up a strong enough lead with it changing 6 times and with 51 seconds to play, Malta were up by 4 points. Jonny Bunyan made an open field goal to narrow the gap to 2 points and then with 3 seconds left to play tied the game with two free throws and set-up overtime. During the overtime period Malta were 10 from 11 for free throws which together with a couple of crucial turnovers from Scotland proved decisive and Malta closed out the game 87-82.
A tremendous effort by the Scots with leading scorers Nicholas Collins 23pts 10 rebounds, Jonny Bunyan 21pts 7 rebounds, Lee Reilly 11pts and Tom Adorian 11pts 8 rebounds.
Photos and report courtesy of basketballScotland.
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