Falkirk Fury 46-91 Glasgow Rocks: Capacity crowd watch glamour friendly

Grangemouth Sports Complex. Sony Centre Fury v Radisson Red Glasgow Rocks basketball. Match finished 46 - 91 Rocks win. Eddy Leginus 4, Ali Fraser 15 and Ross Gibson 13.

A capacity crowd of 350 filled the Grangemouth Sports Complex to see the Scottish Division 1 leaders take on the pro team the Rocks.

This is a much anticipated annual fixture, with former Fury players Ali Fraser, Fraser Malcolm and Kieran Allan playing for the Rocks.

They also boosted two Americans - point guard Greg Pryor and forward Eli Pepper, French big Djo Ebala and Lithuanian sharpshooter Tadas Rinkaunas. Scots Internationals Jonny Bunyan ( another former Fury star) and Gareth Murray sat out the match.

46 - 91 Rocks win. Makaleb McInnis 7. (pictures: Michael Gillen)

Fury started with their American - Makaleb McInnes, Lithuanian Eddy Leginas, Chinese player Xhie Lin, Bulgarian Ivan Ganchev and former Rock - Bantu Burroughs. Fury were without key Lithuanians - Ziggy Dauksas and Evaldis Burksaitis through injury issues.

The match started with defence on top for both sides, until the Rocks pulled 10pts clear with Pryor, Pepper and Ali Fraser prominent. Fury meanwhile struggled to execute and it was not till late in the first they pulled back into the game with 3’s from Lin and McInnes.

The first end 24-15 to the Glasgow based side.

The second saw Fury hold their own for most of the period with the game staying around the 10/12 pt mark with Ganchev, Burroughs and Captain Keith Bunyan key on the offensive end.

However a shocking finish to the second saw all Fury’s hard work to stay in touch, disappear as a series of turnovers gave the Rocks a 46-22 half time lead.

The third saw another good quarter from Fury as they switched to zone defence and keeping that period scoreline at 15-22. Scottish centre Ross Gibson having a good spell in the third as did Fury’s US star McInnes.

However the 4th saw the Rocks finish strongly despite Bunyan hitting his second 3 of the night to get Fury off to a good final stanza start.

The final score reflected the difference training several hours a day to several hours a week makes, but the fans were the real winners getting an opportunity to see 2 of their favourite teams!