For this week’s SBC Game of the Week, we were in Edinburgh to watch City of Edinburgh Kats play host to St. Mirren in the semi-finals of the SBC Playoffs. City of Edinburgh took the 74-65 win at home and advanced to the Finals this weekend at Oriam.
To start the game, St. Mirren went on a 9-6 run as Saint’s Fiona Harris and captain, Rebecca Cleary combined to give their team the lead. Saint’s effectively got into the teeth of the defence in the first half and got a number of looks inside to allow them to hold the lead for the majority of the first quarter.
Late in the first quarter, Kats’ Leanne Page scored 7 straight point for her team, trimming the score to 20-19 by the end of the period.
Early in the second quarter, there was a period where both teams struggled to put the ball in the basket. Casey Morrison would break the scoring drought by knocking down the long two-pointer to give Kats’ the lead for the first time in the game. Kats’ capitalised from that point and went on to outscore Saints 18-11 for the quarter, as they forced turnover and got out on the break, giving them a 38-30 lead heading into the half.
Coming out of the break, Kats’ Alexandra Nelson made a three-pointer to make it a double-digit lead over the away team. However, Saints worked away at the lead over the course of the quarter, mostly as a result of 11 points from Rebecca Cleary, that allowed Saints to pull the score to within 6 going into the final quarter.
Saint’s regained the lead to start the final quarter as they switched to zone and kept Kats scoreless for the first four minutes of the period and meanwhile, converted on the other end.
“The reason we were scoreless was because we were turing the ball over” said Kat’s coach, Ben Gunn, “Once we were spacing better, the shots started coming.”
Kat’s Emma Findlay would then break the cold streak for the home team, knocking down a three-pointer to tie the game at 58-58.
From that point on Saints really struggled to convert on offense and as a result, Kats outscored them 14-7 to go on and take the 74-65 victory at home and advance to the finals of the 2018 SBC Playoffs.
“It was a scrappy game but I was quite happy to close it out” said Kats coach, Ben Gunn.
Emma Findlay was City of Edinburgh’s top scorer with 18 points. Rebecca Cleary finished as St. Mirren’s top scorer with 17 points.