Boroughmuir Blaze claim victory in local derby with City of Edinburgh Kings

Boroughmuir Blaze claimed the local basketball bragging rights by defeating City of Edinburgh Kings in another hard-fought derby at Portobello High School.

Mid-table Blaze were without regular starters Mat Kruczynski and skipper Eoghann Dover and trailed by ten points early on, yet they somehow led by two at the end of the first quarter.

The gap had grown to eight points entering the last ten minutes, but Kings overcame a similar deficit to win at The Crags in October, so Blaze were unable to relax until finally seeing out a nervy 77-70 victory.

With Dunfermline Reign having already clinched the league title, Kings are now contesting second place with cp winners Falkirk Fury and deposed champions St Mirren, who they entertain this Friday evening.

Dunfermline celebrated their first outing as the 2019 league champions with a 92-53 demolition of Edinburgh University at The Pleasance, leaving the students with just one win all season.

The university’s women’s team was also defeated at the same venue as Lady Rocks triumphed 67-55 to secure the league crown. Most of the damage was done in the second quarter when the Cumbernauld side opened up a 37-27 lead. The students remain fourth-equal but still have three games left to climb the table and earn a higher seeding for the end-of-season play-offs which they won last year.

Lady Rocks’ victory ended the title reign of City of Edinburgh Kool Kats, but Kats took consolation by extending their winning run in 2019 to five matches after blitzing Polonia Phoenix 87-15 at Portobello High.

It was all over by half-time as Kats led 49-9, and coach Ben Gunn’s team can still challenge for second place when they welcome St Mirren on Saturday. Phoenix must now beat West Lothian Wolves in their final fixture to avoid a clean sweep of 16 straight defeats.

Caledonia Pride endured an unsuccessful weekend in the WBBL Trophy as back-to-back defeats to Durham Palatinates – 93-58 at Oriam on Saturday – and Newcastle Eagles – 80-64 in the north-east on Sunday – cost the Edinburgh club any chance of reaching the semi-finals.

Tia Weledji and captain Hannah Robb both scored heavily in Newcastle and Sian Phillips shone brightly on Saturday, but the highlight of a difficult weekend was the assured debut against Durham of 15-year-old Rose Harvey.