Falkirk Fury: John Bunyan's senior men establish 30-point lead after play-off semi-final first leg

The play-offs see the top-four teams battle it out in two-leg ties for the final trophy of the season.

With Fury finishing runners-up in the league and Saints third, this was expected to be a much closer game despite Fury’s 25-point win over Saints two weeks previously.

But Saints had no answer to Murray Hendry and Burroughs with 29 and 27 points respectively.

With Eddy Leginas, American Javon Daniels, current Caledonia Gladiators forward Oscar Baldwin and Adnan Jalil all in top form, Fury were inspired and scorelines of 21-16 and 20-18 gave them a seven-point half-time lead.

Their scoring was led by Hendry with seven personal and Baldwin with six in the opening period, with the second stanza seeing Fury raining threes down on Saints, with Daniels with back-to-back treys and Leginas and Burroughs adding one apiece from beyond the arc.

However, the game saw a significant change in the third as Fury continued their scoring with 21 but upped their defence to hold Saints to nine points.

Hendry scored 13 points, with Daniels and Burroughs hitting from downtown and Fury now 19 points clear going into the final quarter, when a 26-15 scoreline gave a 30-point win overall.

Fury head coach John Bunyan said: “I want to highlight the performance from Eddy Leginas, who played through some pain after picking up an injury in training. Murray and Bantu were outstanding, but our job is only half done.”

The second leg is tomorrow at the Lagoon Centre in Paisley with a 7.45pm tip.

Meanwhile, Fury senior women go into the away second leg of their play-off championship semi-final against top seeds Edinburgh University this weekend with a 58-point deficit to overcome from the first leg.

This season has seen the Falkirk side finish fourth in the Scottish Division 1 in the regular season, but with Uni’s training and their team similar to their WBBL seasons, a domestic treble for them is likely after already taking the league and cup titles.