Blaze burn Falkirk Fury to secure overtime win

The Crags Centre in Edinburgh hosted yet another tense game between the country's top clubs at senior men level.

It was the home team – last season’s treble winners who had won four out of four this term – who got the better start, opening up with a solid first quarter lead of 26-16.

Fury – who had won all six of their previous league outings this season – later found themselves 44-27 adrift.

But it was Ali Fraser and the returning Bantu Burroughs, who had been out of Fury's line-up for the past three games, who got a couple of key baskets to bring the game back to touching distance at the half at 45-32.

The third saw Fury have a big quarter with a 25-16 scoreline in their favour and the game back at four points with Blaze now just edging it at 61-57.

The fourth period saw Blaze continue to hang on with the game going as close as one point until an Eddie Leginas three eventually tied the game for Fury with 30 seconds remaining. Neither team could change that scoreline and an already tense game was now heading for a five-minute period of overtime.

Blaze then opened up a six-point gap before that man Fraser closed it to a 78-75 scoreline with a two-point basket and three-and-a-half minutes still to play. However Blaze again took the initiative and pushed the game out to a nine-point gap before Hendry finished the game with a two and the 88-81 scoreline.

For Fury, Fraser continued his surge since re-joining his grassroots club from his 12 years as a pro player, with 33 big points. Guards Burroughs and Leginas shared 24 points with hard working Murray Hendry on 14 points personal.

Completing Fury's five players who played most of the game was Adnan Jalil, who got eight points.

Fury head coach John Bunyan said post match: "The game lived up to what we all expected it would be and that was a close, entertaining, sporting game of basketball between two excellent teams.

"Before the game I was talking to a number of people who thought our games against Blaze last season were the best ever standard in Scottish basketball and this was no different.

"We started poorly, they shot very well and while we worked hard on stopping that in the second half, we were simply not good enough in closing them down in the first two periods.

"We let their pressing game trouble us, but again not so in the second half.

"We need to work on a better balance in terms of our outside threat and not rely on Ali and Murray inside - we have the players that are more than capable of doing that, but like all relatively new line-ups these adaptions take time.

“Blaze are also working in that respect and full credit to them, they got the job done in OT,. But it's a long season, we have to play them twice again in the league and being seven down in game one is not something we cannot reverse."

Fury senior men visit Stirling Knights this Friday at The Peak with a 7.50pm tip.