Caledonia Pride to face Northumbria in WBBL Cup last four

Pride will travel to Newcastle next month, seeking to reach the final in Birmingham in late January, after dethroning holders Manchester Mystics in Manchester on Saturday night. American summer signing Rosie Reynolds starred with 33 points as the visitors recovered from a slow start to win 86-76.

“We had a good run right after half-time, got the lead and never gave it up,” reflected Sengers. “Everybody got on court and everybody contributed. We played very poorly at Sevenoaks last week, so we had a meeting after that and we stood up on Saturday.

“It will be interesting now as we already play Northumbria in the league on Friday 15th, so we’re possibly playing them two days in a row at their place. That helps us with our preparation as we now only need to prepare for one team that weekend.”

Meanwhile, in the Scottish women’s league, defending champions City of Edinburgh Kool Kats edged ahead of title rivals Lady Rocks after pipping Tayside Musketeers 71-68 in Dundee, while Rocks tasted their first defeat of the season when losing to Falkirk Fury. Kats crucially hit 11 three-pointers, six of them from Emma Findlay, as they narrowly avoided a shock result of their own.

In the men’s league, City of Edinburgh Kings warmed up for this weekend’s Scottish Cup semi-final with a sixth straight victory. Despite trailing Stirling Knights by three points at half-time, Kings pulled away to win 84-69 at Portobello High.

Boroughmuir Blaze are also in high spirits ahead of their Cup semi following back-to-back wins over Glasgow University. It was 53-44 at The Crags on Friday night and 58-50 in Glasgow on Sunday.

Blaze’s semi-final opponents, Pleasance Basketball Club, were denied a weekend run out when Edinburgh University postponed Sunday’s league fixture. “We had a few players unavailable, so it probably suited us,“ admitted Pleasance coach Scott Sanford.