• ARCH friends gather for Robert Triumph

Former Scotland and MIM captain Bobby Archibald made a last-minute decision to fly from the USA to Edinburgh and arrived in time to see his son Robert play a starring role in the Great Britain 110-78 rout of luckless Albania in their European Championship game at Meadowbank before a crowd of 1700, which also included Robert's 88-year-old grandmother.
Now a successful businessman in St Louis, Archibald senior, himself a former Great Britain player as well as a stalwart of the all-conquering Meadowbank and later Livingston-based Murray International Metals team of the eighties, saw his 6ft 11in son score 21 points, take seven rebounds, give four assists and have two blocks in a dominant display which had everyone forgetting that two days earlier he could hardly walk after suffering back spasms during the victory over Netherlands.
It was a delighted GB coach Chris Finch who summed up the 27-year-old former Dunfermline player's considerable contribution: "We always felt that, with the emotion of the occasion, with all his family and friends present and if we could get Arch into a position of feeling confident, then he could do that."
Even Chicago Bulls NBA star Luol Deng seemed content to allow his GB teammate the centre stage though Deng, who totalled 19 points, delighted the crowd with several massive dunks including one when he almost decapitated an Albanian rival on his descent.
Albania, winless in the group, with only eight suited-up players on the bench after some luggage went astray, and tiny compared to the huge home side, were certainly no push-overs, scoring 11 three-pointers, six in the first half, for an amazing 61% average.
Down 29-16 after the first quarter and 60-40 at half-time, they refused to lie down and showed precisely why they had been such difficult opponents to beat in Tirana when it took a Nate Reinkeng three at the end of overtime to give GB the win.
With starting point guard Richard Midgley resting a knee injury, Reinkeng again had a key role this time, scoring 13, with fellow guard Mike Lenzly adding 12.
But this British performance was all about the big men, Archibald's clubmate at DKV Badalona last season the 7ft 1in Andy Betts mopping up 17 points and six rebounds and skipper Andy Sullivan adding 13, while the veteran Roger Huggins again put his body on the line for the GB team who have now won three, lost none this year and could make it a record-equalling four-in-a-row if they prevailed in Minsk...
But coach Finch knew that the away trip to Belarus for the group decider would be far tougher than the first three: "I told them before that the Slovakia game would probably be the toughest but I was lying - the game against Belarus was always going to be the one."
Belarus beat GB by one point at Sheffield last year in the first phase of the group and downed Slovakia by seven away so coach Finch was justifiably wary of them.

Great Britain women's team kept up their bid for promotion from Euro B with a 63-49 win over Estonia at Manchester.
Scotland-qualified Megan Moody scored 10 points.

• Archibald makes GB debut at last

Despite fears over the ankle injury which kept him out of the games v Georgia and the three-game tourney in Croatia, Dunfermline's Robert Archibald made his long-awaited Great Britain debut in the first of two games against Ireland in Crawley on Thursday August 16.
The 27-year-old 6ft 11in centre, who spent two years in the NBA and recently signed a one-year million pound deal to play in the Ukraine, came on in the third quarter to score six points in seven and a half minutes.
By that time GB, inspired by Chicago Bulls star Luol Deng, who top-scored with 26 points, were well in control having led 48-30 at half-time, and they went on to win 87-59 over an admittedly understrength Irish side.
In charge of the Irish was their full-time coaching director, Aussie Greg Gurr, the former coach to Edinburgh Kings, who spotted Archibald's early potential by including him as a cadet in the Scottish junior side who contested the Four Countries Junior Championship in Inverness in 1996. "He aint half grown since then" commented Gurr.
GB coach Chris Finch will be pleased to have Archibald back in action in time for the vital European Championship games, beginning with the home game v Slovakia at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham next Tuesday.

GB play Albania at Meadowbank on September 1.