Basketball: Capital men and women get off to flyers on road

While the women, reinforced by a super intake of new talent, crushed Aberdeen 96-33, the men were made to work hard for their 74-65  victory over Dundee.

Former Edinburgh Kings and Scottish Universities coach Danny Costello has taken over for Edinburgh men, who include some of the team who contested the Home Nations tournament in Nottingham last April.

One of these is their captain and club president Ben Warrington, who top-scored with 21 points, and another is Davy Rowan, who took over the ball-handling duties in the second half from American guard Cody Semelrock, who hit a crucial three three-pointers in his 12-point tally.

Four freshers led the scoring for Edinburgh women in Aberdeen, three of them from Polonia Phoenix and one from Edinburgh Kool Kats. Claire Paxton got 24 points with Beth Mackie adding 14 and Hilary Wood 12 while Kats’ Hannah Peacock netted 16 points.

“It was a good performance by all the girls and we ran the (fast) break really well,” said assistant coach and former captain Ali Mitchell, whose father Jim has again taken charge of the side.

Meanwhile, Boroughmuir Blaze’s achieved a 69-65 Scottish League victory over St Mirren with many players missing, while Scottish Cup-holders Saints were apparently playing with a full-strength team.

Michael McGregor scored 22 points, EU students Davy Rowan got  12, Ben Warrington ten and Kevin Anderson added 11.