Basketball: Stella Fouraki shines on Caledonia Pride debut | Kings reign over students

Caledonia Pride’s youthful new team was thrown in at the deep end on the opening weekend of the Women’s British Basketball season.

.

Back-to-back WBBL Trophy games at Essex University were a testing start, but the identity of their first opponents, league champions Sevenoaks Suns, made it an even more daunting task.

Pride lost that one 81-60 despite 18 points and ten rebounds from Greek summer signing Stella Fouraki and a scoring debut for 14-year-old Jenny Torrance.

The Edinburgh club was back on court less than 
24 hours later and this time 
fell 73-48 to Newcastle 
Eagles.

“Those were the first two times we played as a team, 
so actually I’m pleased with where we are at the moment,” said head coach Bart Sengers. “We have a lot of work to do and a long road ahead of us, but we are embracing that process. We’ll take the season step by step and see how we do.”

In the Scottish men’s league, City of Edinburgh Kings defeated Glasgow University 73-54 after pulling away in the final quarter at Portobello High.

Boroughmuir Blaze lost 79-62 to joint leaders Falkirk Fury in Grangemouth, while Edinburgh Lions pushed St Mirren in Paisley before going down 74-65.

On a quiet weekend in the women’s championship, City of Edinburgh Kool Kats were still celebrating their 69-42 midweek win at Edinburgh University.