Basketball: Kings face US college team test

Scottish basketball champions Edinburgh Kings open their new season with a challenge match against a strong US college team, Franklin Marshall, at Portobello High School Games Hall tonight (6.30pm).

But they will have to do it without their Scottish international guard Laurie Costello, who could be out for three months due to injuries picked up playing for Scotland earlier this summer. An MRI scan has revealed damage to his posterior cruciate ligament as well as a bruised tibia.

On the plus side Lee Reilly, who was a member of the Scotland junior side who achieved their best finish in Euro B this summer, steps back into the Kings senior squad.

The other Kings players in the Scotland senior side who finished sixth in Euro C in Malta last month, Paddy Campbell, Simon Flockhart and Garreth Lodge, are all back as are Edinburgh University vet student Michael Kirkpatrick and Latvian forward Edgars Rekis.

Franklin Marshall are a NCAA Division Three side but Kings coach Danny Costello expects them to provide stiff opposition: "We understand they finished in the top four in the division this year so we are well aware they will be tough," he said.