Boroughmuir Blaze to face Falkirk Fury in Scottish Cup final

Boroughmuir Blaze are through to the final of the Scottish Basketball Cup for the first time in the modern era after beating Edinburgh Kings 79-69 at Portobello HS.

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Blaze coach Simon Turner was generous in defeat and insisted that the result could have gone either way: “It was close the whole game, it just so happened we were in front at the finish,” he said. “But we did change some things after our last defeat [from them] as they had scouted us well.

“Our guards made a big effort on the boards at each end.”

Turner praised new signing Jordan Green, who played well coming off the bench.

Blaze were 20-18 up after the first quarter and 41-39 down at half-time. After a 16-16 third 10 minutes they pulled away with John Brown hitting four from six free throws to clinch the win. Kings coach Craig Nicol was bitterly disappointed: “We played poorly,” he said.

Edinburgh University made a brave effort to join Blaze in next month’s final at Oriam but were always just off the pace at the Mariner where they went down 76-63 to holders Falkirk Fury.

Brendan Mullan had another strong game, scoring 23 points for EU, with Laurits Juffer adding 14, and Alex Steffen eight, including two threes.

Veteran former BBL hot shot Keith Bunyan hit five threes in his 17-point tally for Fury and Ed Leginus three as he top-scored with 20 points. Adam Hammerschmidt added 15 points.