A new look St Mirren under-18s basketball side started their season with a convincing 78-42 win over Glasgow Rens at the Lagoon Centre last week.

The Saints have seen older boys moving on after the end of last season with Chris Feeney and Cal Low also away to pastures new.

The Paisley side started with Robbie Stephenson, Mikey Irvine, Jack Thomson, Ally Harris and Owen Speirs.

Mikey Irvine won the tip off and Saints didn’t look back. With the Saints defence pressuring Rens and plenty of fouls from the opposition, initially Saints struggled to find their rhythm in offence.

But then Robbie Stephenson started to get in on the act with the first score from open field followed by the bonus point and it was then 6-0.

Ross Piggot and Ben Mitchell came on and increased Saints’ intensity.

They were frustrating the Rens attack, keeping the Glasgow side away from the home basket.

The offence started to find its feet, especially Stephenson, who scored the season’s first three pointer to make it 19-0.

A late response from Rens gave a score for the quarter 19-3.

Saints came out for the second quarter quickly, flying into a 26-3 lead.

Rens responded but a flurry of Saints three pointers from new arrivals Greg Merril and Ally Harris gave a quarter score of 22-14 and half time score of 41-17.

Thomson collected his own rebound and then immediately scored a break-away early in the second half to increase the St Mirren lead.

An increasingly frustrated Rens struggled to get back into the match, which started to get a bit more physical. Owen Speirs took an elbow to the face and some pushing following an incident on the floor.

Midway through the quarter Craig Fraser scored to make it 54-24, and some great St Mirren defence, especially from Ross Piggott and Owen Speirs kept the Rens at bay.

Piggott scored late on in the quarter to make it 61-26 end of third.

St Mirren finally took their foot off the gas as the match came to a close and Rens came back into the game in the final quarter which was the Saints edged 17-16, to give a final score of 78-42.

There was no early season cobwebs St Mirren who started as they finished the last campaign, looking strong defensively with the opposition given no time on the ball or territory and fluid in their offensive play.