Basketball: Kings back on song

By SANDY SUTHERLAND
Published on 18/03/2013 12:00

Back-to-form Edinburgh Kings cruised to an 87-53 win over Stirling Knights in the first leg of their Scottish League Basketball Play-Offs first round tie at the Peak Centre, Stirling at the weekend.

Though without both internationalists Simon Flockhart (ankle injury) and Garreth Lodge, Kings had Latvian star Ed Rekis back in the side and they never allowed the Stirling side the sort of freedom they enjoyed in their narrow (regular season) win over Falkirk Fury at the same venue last month.

Ahead 22-14 after the first quarter and 44-24 at half-time, Kings took the third quarter 27-18 and the game was as good as over. Lee Reilly led the Kings’ scoring with 31 points, Rekis added 22 and Paddy Campbell 17, while Mark Duncan had 18 for Knights.

Edinburgh Kool Kats completed their regular season with a 68-54 away win over Pentland Star at Broughton High School yesterday, but the result had no impact on the final league positions with Kats finishing third after 14 wins and four defeats, the same as new champions Polonia Phoenix and runners-up St Mirren.

Kings juniors went out of the Scottish League Play-Offs losing 66-65 to Boroughmuir Blaze in their semi-final at the Peak Centre.

At the same venue League champions Tayside Musketeers just squeezed through 73-72 over Falkirk Fury and the stage is now set for a repeat of the junior cup final between Blaze and Tayside at the Lagoon Sports Centre, Paisley next Saturday.