Basketball: Chopper flies in but can’t fan the flames at Blaze

With head coach Simon Turner stepping aside due to domestic commitments, Lee “Chopper” Pettett has stepped in to coach Boroughmuir Blaze in the Scottish League.

However, with several players still missing through injury, including Laurie Costello, Rob Jansson and Adam Johnstone, Pettett, a former Edinburgh Kings centre, is finding it hard to fan the flames. Blaze went down 80-60 to Glasgow University in Glasgow on Saturday, the Capital side having a poor afternoon with their shooting against a much-improved team.

“We came out slow in the first quarter, which really hurt us, and our shooting percentage was terrible,” lamented Pettett. “They shot the ball very well.”

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Polish forward Tomas 
Cicenas led the Blaze scoring with 20 points, while Ben W
arrington, who scrapped well under the basket, added 11.

Glasgow streaked into a 10-1 lead from the start and were 28-14 up after the first quarter. By half-time they were 46-26
up, their final points of the half coming from former Blaze 
player Gregor Auld.

Edinburgh Kings had their away game with Glasgow Rocks virtually won after the first quarter when they led 31-5 at Langside College on Saturday. “It was really good to see us start convincingly,” said coach Doug Reilly, who was down to seven players, with Pete 
Lyons having pulled a back muscle and Audrius Ciapas having to go back to Lithuania at short notice.

Latvian pivot Ed Rekis had one of his best games of the season in scoring 36 points, while Simon Flockhart added 18, Lee Reilly 15, and Craig Reilly 12.

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With both Kings junior and cadet teams winning away to Highland Bears in Inverness and Kool Kats cadettes squeezing a 60-57 win over Bears at Portobello, it was a successful weekend for the city club.

Kool Kats’ senior game away to Pentland Star at Broughton High yesterday, however, had to be postponed due to another broken backboard.

Polonia Phoenix played their home games at Holy Rood HS yesterday and, led by Claire Paxton with 20 and Julie 
Ritchie 12, all in the first half, the seniors beat Tayside Musketeers 63-53 after being 31-27 up at half-time to maintain their unbeaten record.

Phoenix juniors, however, lost 56-53 and the cadettes lost 71-46.