Basketball: Blaze on fire in Kingdom as they battle back to form

Boroughmuir BLAZE shook off the effects of their previous week’s chastening defeat at the hands of Edinburgh Kings to dump Dunfermline Reign 95-63 in their Scottish basketball league clash in Fife.

It was a performance which caught their hosts totally off guard and was a great morale boost for Muir’s away Scottish Cup semi-final against St Mirren next Friday

“Muir played really well and dominated the game from the opening tip,” said Reign coach and former Scotland captain James Steel, who admitted the Fifers were taken by surprise.

Blaze still only had eight players on their bench but had Scottish cap and former Scottish Rocks guard Michael McGregor back for the unavailable Laurie Costello, as well as Polish player Tomas Cicenas, while Hull Wasp and ex-Edinburgh University player Rob Crickmore made his debut.

It was Aussie and assistant coach Chopper Pettett who was top scorer with 21 points. “The togetherness of the team was great again,” said coach Simon Turner.

St Mirren beat Stirling Knights 70-60 in a bad-tempered affair while Glasgow Storm lost at home, 76-59, to Glasgow University. And Kings, despite being short of three players, beat Glasgow Rocks 83-56 at Dundonald College.

Polonia’s three games against Glasgow Rocks were all postponed as a mark of respect to Jim Lay, the Rocks coach who died at the end of last week.