Oklahoma lures Portobello hoopsters

In different suburbs of Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, live two of the finest female basketball players who have ever pulled on a Scottish international shirt, writes Sandy Sutherland.

One of them, Rose Anderson, could rightly claim to be the greatest ever, having been the only Scot to play in the 2012 London Olympics when Great Britain so nearly beat the eventual silver medallists, France.

A decade before that, Nicky Emblem, a former Scottish javelin champion who came close to winning a medal for Scotland in the Commonwealth Games, was also knocking on the door of becoming the first Scots basketball player to reach the Women's NBA professional league in the USA.

Both girls went to Portobello High School, the nursery for so many young players and both had gone on to play for the City of Edinburgh Kool Kats all-conquering club team.

Both won scholarships to colleges in Oklahoma and Emblem later returned there to take up coaching posts in both basketball and football. Enter Celina Eisenhardt, a name which does not sound particularly Edinburgh or Scottish but which, if she progresses as she has done in the last five years, may well emulate her more famous alumnae.

She was awarded a basketball scholarship to Murray State

Junior College in Oklahoma. How appropriate is it therefore that Celina is a big fan of Rose.

She said: "Rose is my hero. I remember her playing for

Great Britain against Canada at Meadowbank in a warm-up game for the 2012 Olympics when I was just starting to come to the Kats training."

Celina has spent the last two years studying and developing her basketball at Myerscough College near Lancaster. This follows impressive performances for the Kats junior team - who won successive Scottish Cup Finals at Oriam - and the Scottish under-18 National Team.