City of Edinburgh Kings are crowned winners over Inverness City Lions
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INVERNESS City Lions suffered a blow to their Scottish Division Two title hopes when they lost 81–68 to City of Edinburgh Kings B at Millburn Academy.
The defeat means Inverness drop to fifth in the table and are three points behind league leaders Stirling Knights.
But crucially Inverness, who are making their debut at national level this season, have a game in hand with seven matches remaining.
Inverness were only four points behind going into the final quarter but Edinburgh scored 22 points in the final part of the game to secure victory.
Head coach John Kerray said the Lions were missing key personnel for the game last weekend.
But he said those who played did well to keep the scoreline respectable.
“It was always going to be a tough game,” he said.
“We were without our main point guard Peter Gounaris, who is away for the whole of January.
“Power forward Ruaraidh MacLennan is still recovering from a broken ankle.
“City of Edinburgh are a class team that were brimming with under-18 and some ex senior National team players.
“We started both halves well but struggled to keep up with the pace of the game in the third and fourth quarters.
“Hamish Young came into form with some key three pointers. Youngsters Owen Heddle on defence and Luke Seago on offence also contributed well and our most experienced player Andy Pearson had a strong game and helped steady the ship when it looked like Kings might run away with the game at times.
“Overall I was happy with the performance and i’m looking forward to another tough game against Blaze on Saturday.”
Captain Maciej Splawski was Inverness’s top player with 21 points.
Inverness travel to face Boroughmuir Blaze on Saturday.
