City of Edinburgh Kings and Kats face tough home tests this weekend when they welcome St Mirren Saints and Tayside Musketeers in the Scottish Basketball Championship Leagues.
Kings had a week off last weekend after disposing of Stirling Knights even though they were without some key personnel.
Kats have made a strong start to their league title defence with wins over West Lothian Wolves and local rivals Polonia Phoenix in their first two match-ups of the season.
Saints come into the Friday match-up at Portobello (8pm) on the back of a close win over Stirling Knights but have proved a tough test for Kings in recent seasons.
Kings hope to be at full strength for the first time this season with former Davidson College (NCAA D1) centre Ali Mackay returning from a broken finger that has kept him out of the last two games.
He will be paired up inside with Calum Nicol who had his best game in a Kings strip against Stirling a fortnight ago, allowing Kings to contend with a very tall and experienced Saints team.
Tayside opened their season with an impressive win over Scottish Cup holders Falkirk Fury last weekend and face Kats on Sunday afternoon at Portobello.
St Mirren will also bring three of their under-age teams to Portobello this weekend with the U16 girls playing against the Kats on Saturday before the women’s game and the U16 and U18 boys taking on the Kings’ boys on Sunday.
Kings Head Coach, Craig Nicol said: “St Mirren have caused us some real problems in the last few seasons so we’ll need to be at our very best on Friday night.
“It’s a huge game for our season and having Ali back in the line up will really help us contest with them on the boards and give us another big option on offence.
“It’s the first time we’ll have a full strength squad this season and I’m excited to see how we can perform with everyone in the line-up.”
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