Falkirk Fury 62 Blaze 65: Fury defeated in last minute

Despite a game high 20 points from ex-Glasgow Rock Bulgarian Boris Matrakov on his debut, the Falkirk side struggled with their execution on offence and paid down the stretch when Blaze took the lead for almost the first time in the game with just over a minute to play.

Fury had taken a low scoring opening period 13-10 but even that was marred by bad decisions in the final 24 seconds when a scoreline of 15-8 should have been the outcome.

The second saw Fury open with three threes – one from Austrian Adam Hammerschmidt and back to back threes from captain Keith Bunyan. Fury began to pull clear, but three threes from Blaze kept the scoreline close at 31-23 at the half.

The third was the highest scoring quarter with the teams sharing 38 points and Fury retaining an eight point lead into the final stanza.

As the fourth moved into the final four minutes, Fury had pushed the lead out to 11 and it looked as though there was no way back for Blaze.

Then three consecutive unanswered threes from the home side saw the game reduced to two points. Blaze then edged clear in the final minute with Matrakov twice pulling Fury back level and the scores were tied at 62 apiece with eight seconds on the clock. A Blaze timeout saw Fury work hard to deny the inside play and fail to counter the game winning three from the Capital side.

Fury top scorers – Matrakov 20; Bunyan 12; Hammerschmidt 10.

Fury head coach John Bunyan spoke to the Falkirk Herald after the match.

He said: “It’s clearly a disappointing loss, but at this stage of the season two games in, we can recover from it. While we have signed a quality player in Boris and he ended the game top scorer, the transition within the team adapting to new personnel can take time.”

Fury Men’s next match is at home to local rivals Stirling Knights on Friday.