Basketball: City stars Flockhart and Gibson get national call-up to face Andorra

Simon FLOCKHART (Edinburgh Kings) and Grant Gibson, who recently transferred from East Lothian Peregrines to Stirling Knights, are the only two Capital players in the Scotland basketball team to face Andorra at the Peak Sports Centre, Stirling, tomorrow night and again on Saturday.

Coach Tom Campbell has named a squad of 13 as former Scottish Rocks forward Gareth Murray is only available for the first game, his first for the National team since he played in the Euro C Tournament at the Pleasance three years ago.

With the 6ft 10ins Great Britain centre Kieron Achara gracing the occasion in his native Stirling and Ike Attah and Nic Collins also named as well as Flockhart, Scotland look like having a considerable height advantage over the team from the Spanish enclave.

But Andorra looked quick in the back court and a hot shooting side in their 77-53 win over a makeshift Edinburgh Kings outfit at Portobello earlier this week and, though the Rocks' Scott Russell is included in the 13, Scotland may go with an inexperienced ball-handler in ex-St Mirren guard Malcolm Morrison.

Even more controversial is the experimental inclusion of the Martin brothers James and Matthew, whose American father Bob played for Doncaster.

Meanwhile, Great Britain women's under-20 team, including Edinburgh Kool Kats Allison and Kathryn Taylor, ex-St Mirren Dee Hayward (Leeds Carnegie) and Erin McGarrachan (Glasgow Rocks), begin their bid in the European Championship A Division in Novi Sad, Serbia today against the Slovak Republic. GB then face Latvia tomorrow and Spain on Sunday in their other group games, with the first three going through to the next stage.