THE Kings basketball club lost and won in that order at the weekend and Brett Jefferies was happy.
The remarkable Australian, who has enlivened Scottish basketball since he arrived to work in the Capital, signed off his outstanding three-year contribution with a vintage 28-point display for Edinburgh Kings, who beat their close rivals Troon Torn
adoes 79-61 in the Scottish Cup final at the Pleasance Sports Centre, Edinburgh University yesterday.
His former team Melbourne Tigers had just overcome the odds to defeat the Sydney Kings in Sydney in the fifth and deciding game of their five-game Australian title series: "It's a good omen," he agreed before going on court to contribute a spectacular 14 points in the opening quarter after which his Edinburgh club led 31-16.
Though things got sticky in the second quarter and Troon reduced the deficit to six, there was never any real doubt that the 34-year-old former pro would lead Kings to their second successive Scottish League and Cup double and he received a great ovation when he finally took his seat on the bench with some two minutes remaining.
"It was nice to go out on a winning note," said honorary captain Jefferies, who had previously told Kings coach Danny Costello that this was to be his last game, some ten years after he first officially retired due to a foot injury which has been slightly troubling him again recently.
You would never have guessed that yesterday, or in recent league games, with the 6ft 6in forward demonstrating just what a great player he must have been at his peak when making his living from the sport.
Thanks to an inbounds play on the buzzer which Simon Flockhart converted, Kings had a slender 40-32 half-time lead, but, helped by a Paddy Campbell three and another six-points-in-a row flurry from Jefferies, they went 59-42 up and their 60-45 lead at the end of the third looked solid despite the determined driving from Troon's Ritchie Martin and Ross Campbell and some very physical defence.
But Kevin Anderson and Laurie Costello were also driving well to pick up the fouls and had Costello's free throws matched the rest of his play, he was three from 11 from the line compared to Jefferies' superb ten from ten, the match would have been out of sight by the end of the third.
As it was, another Campbell three made it 75-53 and only Kings' fourth Scottish Cup win in 14 finals was assured.
Anderson went on to tally 17, Campbell 15, Costello seven, Garreth Lodge six and Flockhart, who also had ten rebounds, six, while Jefferies added nine rebounds.
Kings had taken the RAF Junior Cup on Saturday with an impressive 66-46 win over a Falkirk Fury team still reeling from their upset 70-66 defeat to St Mirren in the cadet men's final.
St Mirren won four trophies out of four, defeating Polonia Phoenix 75-46 in high-tempo women's final. Natalie Chaloner scored 22 points and Rona Corkindale 17 for St Mirren. Leanne Page racked up ten points, Hazel Howson and Amanda Johnston both eight and Lynsey Campbell seven for Polonia. Midlothian Saints took the Scottish Chairman's Cup for women, beating Grangemouth 44-38.
The full article contains 559 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
