Scotland Open With Victory After Malta Scare
This article is taken from Mark Woods article in the Scotsman. The original article can be found here: http://sport.scotsman.com/other-sports/Basketball-Scotland-open-with-.4194850.jp.
SCOTLAND got off to a winning start last night in their C Division European Championship campaign in Edinburgh, but had to battle to grab a 58-49 victory over Malta.
Nick Collins fired a game-high 19 points for the tournament hosts, who raced into a huge early lead but had to withstand a late bombardment from the Maltese.
Iain Maclean's men were 19-5 up in the first quarter but were pinned back to 27-17 by half-time. However they went as much as 17 points ahead to make the tie safe. The Scots will clinch a semi-final place if they see off Wales tonight.
The Welsh, who lost 78-52 to Andorra in their opener yesterday, are without ex-London Towers giant Stuart Robbins, who is stuck on club duty in Germany.
Italian-based Scotland centre Roni Gordon said: "We've got a young team but that means there's a lot of guys with something to prove. There's going to be a bit of an edge as there always is with ourselves and Wales. It's a game we don't want to lose because there are only three group games and every loss is massive." Elsewhere in Pool A, the Andorrans take on Malta.
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