NEW season. Old habits. Glasgow Rocks crumbled on the opening night of the new British Basketball League campaign during a fourth-quarter slump which meant Sterling Davis’ revamped side crashed 80-69 at Worcester Wolves.

Summer signing Warren Gillis hit a game-high 22 points for the Scots but their hosts saved their best for last by closing the game with an 8-1 run, a tough blow for Davis who handed debuts to six of his close-season arrivals while gambling on starting Great Britain Under-20 internationalist Will Hall ahead of American rookie Marcus Ware.

There were moments of promise for the months ahead. Glasgow raced 35-29 clear after reeling off eight consecutive points. Yet after Worcester edged 60-58 in front at the end of the third period, the Slovak forward Pavol Losonsky was inspirational, eventually compiling a 20-point haul as the Wolves bared their teeth.

Meanwhile, the head of basketball’s world governing body, Patrick Baumann, has revealed his frustration at British basketball officials for squandering the legacy of the London 2012 Olympics, claiming the management of the sport may even get worse before it gets better. The FIBA secretary-general, speaking exclusively to The Herald, admits he has watched aghast at the decline in performance of the Great Britain men’s team, which lost its UK Sport funding after failing to qualify for the current EuroBasket finals, as well as an inability to raise the profile of the BBL.

With Basketball England in particular disarray following an ill-fated gambit by its now-departed chief executive Huw Morgan to lure American investors, there have been calls to clean house completely before Basketball Scotland and its home-nation counterparts are folded into a single British Basketball Federation in 2016.

“The bad news is that it’s gone backwards in some instances with a lack of funding and money problems. That’s not really new,” Baumann said. “The good thing is the talent is there and that people want to invest. Ok, from where? That’s not for me to say. But people see an opportunity. It’s under-performing. It’s not well-managed. But if you want to invest, you also see you can make a profit.

“That’s not bad. Now everybody has agreed to a British Federation concept. Once that kicks in next year, you can stabilise the leadership. It might take time to be credible. I don’t think it’s hit the bottom yet. But then I think it will be easier for new leadership to come in and simply change it around.”

Elsewhere, the Czech Republic defeated Latvia 97-68 in the seventh place playoff at EuroBasket in Lille, securing the last European berth in next July’s Olympic Qualification Tournament.