Basketball: Kings rule the roost over Peregrines

By The Newsroom
Published 24th Sep 2010, 13:39 BST
Updated 25th Sep 2010, 14:30 BST
The first local derby of the Scottish basketball league season went off like a damp squib when Edinburgh Kings mauled East Lothian Peregrines 110-44 at Musselburgh Sports Centre.

Ahead 31-5 after the first quarter and 54-15 at half-time, Kings, who had young point guard Craig Reilly in their lineup despite an ankle injury scare, did not have to play particularly well to beat the Peregrines, who badly missed their big centre Rob Jansson, away attending clubmate Denis Westerberg's wedding in Sweden.

Adam Johnstone, with 12 points, led some resistance in the second half from the home side but teenage point guard John Brown, hero of the away win over St Mirren, never found the space to get his shooting going and Cameron McGrain was next with 10.

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A three-pointer from Lee Reilly for Kings - he had 27 points in all in another fine display -n made it 83-27 at the end of the third and, by this time, Kings' two new Baltic country signings were rubbing salt in the wounds.

Experienced Lithuanian power forward Audrius Ciapas netted 18 and Latvian guard-forward Martins Bremze added 12, while fellow Latvian Edgards Rekis scored 15 and Simon Flockhart 13. Kings coach Danny Costello said: "The spread of our points reflected our strength in depth and, although they undoubtedly missed Rob Jansson for his rebounding and inside game, I don't think it would have made any difference to the overall result.

In the other men's national league games Troon Tornadoes took care of Glasgow Rocks 87-56 and Glasgow University came back from 11 points down to defeat Stirling Knights 100-92 after overtime at the Peak Centre, Stirling.

We threw it away - we led every quarter and four times by 11 points," said Stirling boss Derek Hargreaves, for whom Dan Donnelly had 27 points, a tally matched by Lithuanian Kieliauskas for the students.

Edinburgh Kool Kats were also ruing a missed opportunity after leading women's champions Glasgow Rocks by as much as 12 only to lose 76-67 at Cumbernauld.

"It was very frustrating," said Kats coach Graham Gunn.