Boroughmuir Blaze boost play-off as Kats get their trophy

Boroughmuir Blaze and women's champions City of Edinburgh Kool Kats both ended the regular season on a winning note at the weekend, while Caledonia Pride narrowly failed to pull off a massive upset in the Women's British Basketball League.

Bart Sengers

With the Scottish men’s title already clinched by St Mirren, Blaze and City of Edinburgh Kings are chasing second spot to secure a more advantageous draw in the end-of-season play-offs. Blaze remain in pole position after winning 68-53 at Edinburgh University, although Kings stayed in contention with a 75-67 victory over Glasgow Storm at Portobello High, and they can overtake Blaze by beating the Edinburgh students in their final match.

Pleasance Basketball Club still have several games in hand, but the season probably can’t end soon enough for them following back-to-back away defeats at Falkirk Fury (81-67) on Friday and Glasgow Storm (74-55) on Saturday, which left them joint-bottom with Edinburgh University.

Having retained their women’s title earlier this month, Kool Kats finally got their hands on the trophy after beating St Mirren 61-46 in their final regular season outing at Portobello. It was their 13th win in 15 league games and provided a mixture of revenge and consolation for their shock cup exit in Paisley in September.

Polonia Phoenix suffered another demoralising defeat when they lost 72-43 to Tayside Musketeers in Dundee, but they can finally post their first victory of 2018 at the sixth attempt when they take on St Mirren tonight.

Pride missed out on the biggest win in their two-year history despite pushing unbeaten WBBL leaders Sevenoaks Suns to the limit at Oriam on Saturday.

American Rosie Reynolds scored 17 points and also contributed ten rebounds and five assists as an inspired home side led 44-39 entering the final quarter. With their 100 per cent record under serious threat, Suns threw everything at their hosts, but Tricia Oakes put Pride 54-52 ahead with four minutes left, and it was still all-square going into the last 70 seconds.

The visitors escaped with a 59-56 win as they recorded their 13th straight league victory, while Pride remain on course for the play-offs after five wins out of 14. “It was still a good game for us,” said head coach Bart Sengers.