Basketball: Edinburgh derby should see full house

By SANDY SUTHERLAND
Published on 22/02/2013 13:12

A DERBY triple-header between Edinburgh Kings and Boroughmuir Blaze should play to packed houses at Portobello High School ­tomorrow.

Scottish Cadet Cup winners Blaze, unbeaten in the Scottish League and four defeats clear of nearest rivals Troon Tornadoes, can celebrate completing the double in style by winning their remaining two games, the first of which is against Kings at 11am.

Blaze juniors deservedly beat favourites Tayside Musketeers in their Scottish Cup final, but may have ­suffered too many defeats earlier in the season to clinch the league title.

Kings may fancy their chances after beating Muskies in Arbroath last Saturday, but would need to beat Blaze tomorrow (1pm) and then look for Blaze to do them a favour if they are to take the title. But after the way Blaze rose to the occasion in Paisley to lift the junior trophy, it would be a brave man to bet against them at Portobello.

By contrast Kings, with only one defeat this season, are unlikely to give much quarter in the senior game at 3pm and should win comfortably to set up their probable league decider against Falkirk Fury a week tonight.

Unbeaten Edinburgh Uni march on

Edinburgh men host University College London in a quarter-final of the British Universities Championship at the Pleasance next Wednesday after maintaining their unbeaten Scottish record with a 97-38 away win over Strathclyde in Glasgow.

Ryan Webb scored 29 points, Ben Warrington 26 and Nick Bamberger 18. Jamie Wilson was promoted from the second team to cover for absentees.

Gunn agrees to lead women’s team

Veteran Kool Kats coach Graham (Ben) Gunn, who was recently awarded the Ron Mather Memorial Trophy for his services to coaching, has agreed to take charge of the Scottish Universities women’s team for another year and has arranged two training sessions in the

Capital in the next two weeks as the squad prepare for the Four Nations Championship in Edinburgh (April 2-4).

The first will be at Holyrood HS a week on Sunday from 11am to 1pm and the second at Portobello HS on Saturday March 9 from 1-3pm.

Unbeaten Edinburgh University are likely to provide most of the final squad.

Polonia hold the initiative

Polonia Pheonix are favourites for the Scottish senior women’s title, but they will need to hold their nerve to see out the task.

Away again to St Mirren at the Lagoon Centre tonight (8.15pm) – they had a postponed game to fit in hence the back-to-back trips to Paisley – Phoenix must complete another victory to set up a title decider against Edinburgh Kool Kats at Portobello a week tomorrow. Sadly for Kats, a win over their city rivals may not be enough and could actually hand the title to Glasgow Rocks.

All three Kats teams are away to Falkirk Fury tomorrow, the cadettes at 2pm, the juniors at 3.50pm and the seniors at 5.40pm.