Basketball: Edinburgh Kings must play waiting game for cup draw

While holders Edinburgh Kings cruised into the semi-finals with an 87-67 home win over Glasgow Storm at Portobello, main rivals Falkirk Fury were crushing Edinburgh Pleasance 113-47 at the Mariner Centre.

The real drama, though, came before and after this, for the previous night Troon Tornadoes had travelled to Paisley's Lagoon Sports Centre to oust St Mirren, who had beaten them in all their league encounters this season.

Troon won 82-71 and now must believe they can go all the way, especially if they were to draw Grampian League side Portlethen Panthers, who made the semis for the first time after a 77-67 home win yesterday over the Glasgow Rocks B team.

The most likely outcome is that Kings and Fury will be the two seeds but Kings will still want to avoid Troon, who have proved difficult opponents in the past, while a trip to Aberdeen to play Portlethen on their home court could also be tricky at this stage.

King opened in electric fashion against Storm on Saturday, building up a 17-0 lead before letting the Storm regroup. By the end of the quarter it was only 25-15 in Kings' favour and for spells in the second it looked as if the visitors would make serious gains before normal service was restored at half-time with Kings leading 49-33.

Meanwhile, Kings Juniors shocked St Mirren 84-66 away with Junior international point guard Lee Reilly playing the entire game and scoring a vital 31 points.

Charlotte King with 21 and Sarah O'Brien with 20 led Edinburgh Kool Kats to the women's last four with a 79-40 away win over St Maurice's Rocks in Cumbernauld while the cadettes hit form with a 52-31 home win over Perth Phoenix.

Polonia Phoenix also made the senior women's semis, thanks to a 84-33 win over Highland Bears. Polonia juniors, though, went down 66-48 to St Mirren in the junior quarter-finals.