Ross Paterson and Scotland miss out on medal at World Curling Championships in Las Vegas

After coming through the round-robin stage with seven wins from eight 12 matches to reach the play-offs, Team Scotland took on hosts USA for a place in the semi-finals.

But despite a fightback after a disappointing start, skip Paterson and his team went down 6-4 to leave the Orleans Arena empty-handed.

Team Scotland had beaten the Americans 9-7 in their round-robin encounter, but were 5-1 down by the halfway stage of the play-off after allowing their opponents to steal shots at three of the five ends played to that point.

Paterson, Kyle Waddell, Duncan Menzies and Craig Waddell battled back bravely in the second half, claiming two successive steals of their own at the eighth and ninth ends to reduce the leeway to a single shot.

However USA skip Korey Dropkin was not made to play his final stone when Paterson’s attempt to run a Scottish guard into the house, remove the counting American stone and lie three, narrowly failed and left a final scoreline of 6-4.

“That was a massive disappointment,” said Paterson, who played skip stones while Kyle Waddell called the shots.

“Unfortunately I’ve got to take most of the responsibility in the first half, just missed shots that you can’t afford to miss at any level.

“I felt good going into the game, I just feel that we’ve struggled on that particular sheet of ice this week and it was the same again.

“It is very tricky, not forgiving at all, but I’m not trying to make excuses. There were shots getting missed that you don’t usually miss and other factors maybe contribute;

“The boys played great. I’m proud of them for what they’ve done this week in stepping up and playing brilliantly throughout the week and in that game they played well,

“I just didn’t make enough of the key shots in the first half and gave up steals which you just can’t.

“We’ve come here for a medal and we’ve not got it, so right now it’s sore and I feel like I want to take most of the responsibility for that because I feel as if I’ve let the boys down in that first half.”