Junior Men back to winning ways

Feb 12 2010 by Paul Behan, Paisley Daily Express

ST MIRREN RKC 84

TROON 66

ST Mirren Junior Men got back on the winning trail with a victory over west coast rivals Troon.

They didn’t have it all their own way, however.

Kevin McDonald was a big loss for the home side when he wasn’t stripped for the match due to a recurring back injury.

This left a hole in the Saints defence but Calum Bryson stepped in to fill the big man’s shoes.

With 15 rebounds he dominated the boards with help from fellow centre Derek Shankland.

It wasn’t only at the defensive end that the boys were effective, but they were the leading scorers, hitting 18 and 15 points respectively.

St Mirren chose to take the inside route as they had the size in that area to have the advantage.

And with leading scorer Kyle Haldane being kept quiet by some intensive Troon defence and some poor shooting from the Buddies, the big men proved effective.

Saints pulled away on three occasions only to be pegged back.

Coach Colin Haldane said: “This is a feature of our play which I don’t like.

“When we have the lead, we must learn to build on it defensively to increase the gap rather than get sloppy and allow teams back into the game.

“On the positive side, we had far fewer turnovers this week which was a great bonus and to see the bigs working well inside was very pleasing.”

Top scorers for St Mirren were Calum Bryson with 18 points and Derek Shankland with 15.

St Mirren’s next game will be against Falkirk in a home clash at Linwood Sports Centre.