Two of the four Ayrshire Schools cup finals took place last week in front of a large and vocal support.

In the Open boys cup Marr College Open team who gave a Lazarus like performance when they beat Cumnock Academy 51-49 to win the Ayrshire Schools Cup. Marr trailed Cumnock for most of the game - down 10-5 at the end of the first quarter, 23-17 at half time and 38-28 at the end of the third quarter.

In the last quarter Marr clawed their way back into the game and took a 41-40 lead on the back of a Jordan McIwraith three point shot. When McIwraith fouled out of the game with four minutes remaining Cumnock regained the initiative. Marr"s Daniel Muir then stepped up with five points but it was captain Gregor Anderson who sealed the win by making three of four free shots in crunch time. Cumnock had position with eight seconds to go but could not get a shot off. Team: Stewart Caldwell (4 points), Harry Kerr (1 point), Gregor Anderson (18 points), Daniel Muir (5 points), Alan Bruce (2 points), Jordan McIwraith (21 points). In the Ayrshire under-15 final Largs Academy beat James Hamilton Academy 70-51. James Hamilton seemed nervous at the start and missed most of there early chances whereas Largs took theirs and had an early 12-4 lead. By half time James Hamilton had rallied a little by still trailed 36-27.

Although James Hamilton closed the gap to 40-36 Largs Sam Jack stepped with 20 points to seal the win. The under-13 and first year Ayrshire cup finals will take place after the school holidays.

Tornadoes men had no game this weekend so the club spotlight again shown on the under-age teams both of whom hosted Perth Phoenix in the national league.

Tornadoes cadets had a comfortable 69-47 win over Phoenix with Jordan McIwraith scoring 35 points. Tornadoes led 12-11 at the end of the first quarter and 37-22 at half time. In the third quarter, with the Tornadoes coach running his bench, Phoenix outscored the home team 13-9. Normal service was resumed in the last quarter with McIwraith going scoring 10 straight points for Tornadoes.

Team: Grant Gwynne, Chris Savage, Matthew Scott, Harry Kerr, Rob Loughlin. Connor McQuade, Jordan McIwraith, Daniel Muir, Stephen McCallum, Alastair Anthony.

Phoenix completed a clean sweep of four wins of out of four games against Tornadoes in the Junior national league. Twice Tornadoes had thrown a commanding lead away and in the last game at Troon Phoenix had thrown in last second desperation shot from their own half to win. Tornadoes can, however, have no complaints about the loss at the weekend as they were outplayed this time. Tornadoes made a great start at the offensive end but their Achilles heel of poor defense allowed Phoenix to rack up 27 first quarter points to their 20.

The second was tied 18-18 and Phoenix won the third 18-15 to go into the last quarter ahead 63-53.

They briefly increased their lead but Tornadoes threw some cadets into the fray and they immediately responded with Daniel Muir in particular hitting two long bombs. Although Tornadoes won the last quarter they could not undo the first quarter damage and eventually went down 73-80.

Team: Jordan Thomson, Ian Mitchell, Rob Loughlin, Jordan McIwraith, Calum Ayers, Gregor Anderson (14 points), Stuart Gallacher (14 points), Alan Bruce, Jamie Alexanander, Josh Crolley (14 points), David McCallum.