Women's Cup belongs
to Glasgow
Mark Woods
Glasgow Sports Division's women took their
first major honour in the Scottish Cup Final, defeating holders Dalkeith
Saints 69-66 in overtime at the Kelvin Hall.
With two teams largely matching each other
score for score, it eventually came down to five minutes of nerves and
missed shots to settle the prize.
Both finalists displayed defensive excellence,
making breaks hard to come by. A seven points Glasgow advantage in the
first half was reined in to a 36-36 tie at half time.
Saints enjoyed the better of the second
half, retaining the lead until 2:41 from 
the
end of regular time when Glasgow's impressive Irish international Geraldine
Innes put her team up 63-62. An injured back and a simultaneous fifth foul
put Glasgow's leading scorer Deborah Strang out the match on 20 points,
but it still required a lay up from Saints' Lee-Anne Mitchell to square
the tie with 26 seconds left to force the extra period.
The holders could make no further scores
though, missing several shots in succession as nerves held sway. The hometown
side were also off beam, but they converted three of their six chances
for the foul line to inscribe their name on the silverware.
Their player-coach Shirley Birch was ecstatic.
"We did a great defensive job and it shows that even if you take chances
that if you do a good job on D, you get the result. It's our first time
in the Cup, they were there before and even though we made a lot of silly
errors, I feel so pleased about our performance."
Saints were led by Heather McNeill on 20,
while ex-Yugoslav cap Slavica Zelenovic added 17 for Glasgow.
