Falkirk Fury: Narrow loss for senior men leaves them still in with a real shout in play-off final second leg

Played in front of a large crowd at Grangemouth Sports Centre, both teams produced a great advert for the sport in Scotland. Sony Centre sponsored Fury recently beat league toppers Blaze 86-81 in almost an identical scoreline that shows how closely matched these teams now are.

The opening leg of the play-off final started off well for the Falkirk side as they took a nine point, 26-17 first quarter lead. In that period, Bantu Burroughs and Oscar Baldwin shared 14 points with Murray Hendry pouring in six points. The side started with back to back dunks from Baldwin then Hendry soon after.

Adnan Jalil grabbed four points with Ziggy Dauksas also getting on the scoresheet in what was a balanced offence for Fury in that first period. Blaze then came into it with a 29-18 second period that saw the capital side take a two point lead in a high scoring 46-44 first half.

Back to back threes from American Javon Daniels opened the second stanza for Fury with Burroughs adding back to back threes himself later in the period as Fury sought to provide interior and perimeter offence.

The third saw Blaze extend their lead to seven points with a 21-16 stanza. Burroughs added a further three with Daniels staying hot from beyond the arc with a further two treys.

But it was inside that Fury wanted to focus their attack and sure enough it was big plays from Murray Hendry that saw him produce five two plays that brought Fury and the crowd roaring back into the game. Oscar Baldwin also brought the home fans to their feet with two massive three shots that saw the game close to within three points with ten seconds left in the game.

But it was to remain at three points with all to play for in the second leg at the Crags Sports Complex. That game has a 3.20pm tip on Saturday. Murray Hendry led Fury with a big 23 points, several crowd pleasing dunks and an energy that saw Fury remain firmly in touch in the play-off final.

Bantu Burroughs was back to top form with four threes and 18 points. Also on 18 points was centre Osacr Baldwin. He produced three threes in his tally and like Hendry produced several showtime dunks. Javon Daniels had an instant with four threes and 12 points with Adnan Jalil again solid at both ends of the floor.

Fury head coach John Bunyan said of the performance and result: "We got out to a great start and worked really hard in that first quarter to have what was a really good nine point lead. Despite four threes in the second period we never really got going inside and we allowed Blaze far too much in transition.

"Despite falling further behind in the third, we really dug deep to get back in the tie and had a shot to tie the game in the last few seconds. The three point game difference means of course it is still very much either teams final and I know we are looking forward to another fantastic game.

"The players in both teams have shown what a great standard the top of Scottish basketball is and how entertaining it can be. Coaching against a great coach like Alan Keane makes it even more challenging".

Fury hope to take a large support to the Crags on Saturday and fan power could be the difference!