City of Edinburgh made it a clean sweep of Scottish Cup Final victories in the final game of day one which saw an all-Edinburgh clash between the Kings and Boroughmuir Blaze.
Edinburgh got off to a great start, leading 7-2 early on as Blaze were forced to call a timeout to try and sort things out. It proved to be the trick as Blaze caught up in their quest to dethrone the Kings and the first period ended 16-14 in the Kings favour.
Strong post offence and rebounding on both ends were in favour of the Kings as the fiery Blaze could not cope with the Kings’ height. Blaze’s Dover upped the intensity as they forced a few turnovers for the Kings leading into halftime as the score stands 37-29 to the Kings.
Strong drives to the basket were in abundance for both teams as Kyle Jimenez strode his way to the cup and Blaze’s Eoghann Dover sailed his own way to the Kings basket, trading baskets a piece Kings held a firm 7 point lead. The King’s answered by shutting down their defence and only allowing perimeter shots which were not falling for the Blaze. Closing out an excellent 3rd quarter, Kings are putting out the flames of Blaze, 56-41.
The 4th quarter started fiery as Dover gained Blaze a hard and-one. Some accurate perimeter shooting from the blazing shooting of Davy Rowan and Lewis Croft cut the Kings lead down to 6 late in the 4th. The crowd were loud but the atmosphere got electric as the Blaze electrocuted the gap, which was not helped by the poor FT of the Kings. Foul trouble was what finally put out the Blaze as they sent a King to the line consecutive possessions. City of Edinburgh Kings were crowned Scottish Cup Champions 2018 as they slayed the Boroughmuir Blaze 67-54.
Alistair MacKay’s instrumental double-double for Kings secured his place as the Molten Sports MVP.
Stat Leaders:
- Eoghann Dover 16 points 4 rebounds
- Alistair MacKay 15 points 12 rebounds
