Falkirk Fury: League winning cadette women fall just short in final four battle at play-offs

After a tough semi-final that saw Fury defeat the Gladiators with a 56-46 scoreline the stage was set for yet another Fury v Blaze showdown. Fury went into the Final 4 weekend with key point guard Beth Sneddon out after picking up an injury in training.

With Fury having taken the league title on Blaze's home court and also defeated the capital side in the Scottish Cup final, the game was sure to be eagerly contested.

While Fury took the opening three quarters 15-12, 11-9 and 13-10 for an eight-point lead going into the final quarter, no-one could have predicted Fury would score only one point in the fourth and fall to a 44-40 scoreline.

Incredibly, the top two teams at U16 in the country could not score for five minutes and it was not until halfway through the fourth that the game suddenly turned after an unsportsmanlike foul on Fury's Scotland international Rachel Dagger, who was forced to leave the court.

Off the bench Leila Gillespie stepped up to take the free throws, scoring the first but missing the second with Dagger unable to return to the game, now on the subs seats.

That proved costly to Fury as Blaze, now 40-31 down, brought the game back to five points before Dagger's return. However the momentum stayed with Blaze as they ran out 44-40 winners.

While the stats showed that Fury took an unbelievable 73 rebounds - 35 of these offensive rebounds, that simply showed the lack of execution by the Falkirk side. While disappointing not to win all three titles, Fury can take a great deal from a very strong season winning the Scottish Division 1 Championship and the Scottish Cup.

Top scorer for Fury in the play-off final was Leila Gillespie with 12 points and five rebounds.

Rachel Dagger had 10 points and a double-double with a massive 17 rebounds. Poppy Duncan also had 17 rebounds, with eight points personal, with Daisy Lawson rebounding 12 and scoring five points personal.

Kyla Torrance had five points and eight rebounds.