Falkirk Fury: Senior women are narrowly beaten by City of Edinburgh

Fury's starting line-up saw Abby Rutter, Lauren Bennet, Shannon Flippard, Ailie Gardner and Emily Dagger got off to a great start going five up with a two from Dagger and a three from Rutter. Lauren Bennet then made it 7-0 before Kats were forced into an early timeout.

Back to back threes from Dagger and Captain Shannon Flippard saw the Falkirk side go 13-6 clear. Fury continued to show great form as Gardner hit two free throws with Rachel Penman coming off the bench to make a driving lay-up to put Fury 17-6 clear. With Kats failing to break Fury's defence, the fourth three of the quarter saw Gardner make it 20-6.

With the first period ending 20-10 for Fury the capital club made a push in the second to get back in the game with a 16-11 scoreline to give Fury a five-point half-time lead.

A close third period then saw Fury edge it 16-15 and go into the last quarter with a six-point lead.

Back to back threes from Emily Dagger had been a highlight for Fury in the third with another former junior, Abby Reid, also getting on the scoresheet.

The final stanza saw Fury go behind for the first time at 49-47 but despite going four points behind, the Sony sponsored side dug in and a Shannon Flippard three tied the game at 55 points apiece with two minutes to play.

With just over a minute to play Dagger struck with her fifth three of the game to put Fury 58-55 ahead. But it was a foul called in that final minute that saw Fury lose out from the charity stripe as Kats hit five points from the line to to take the win.

Emily Dagger top scored for Fury with 17 points personal, Flippard had 10 points with Rutter on eight points and Gardner on seven points. Abby Rutter once again put in a huge defensive presence for the Falkirk side with nine shot blocks.

Fury head coach John Bunyan said post-match: “This was a tough loss for the team, especially after we got out to such a great start, but there are four quarters in a game and we need to maintain the efficiency we showed in the first.

"Ten threes is a solid number and we need to maintain that perimeter threat as we are not the biggest team in the league. Defensively the team worked really hard but we need to work harder on our transition defence."

Meanwhile, Caledonian Gladiators secured a famous 66-63 triumph over the reigning FIBA Europe Cup winners in one of the most significant wins in the Scottish pro-basketball club’s history.

The men’s side defeated Polish team Anwil Wloclawek, who are the current holders of the trophy, with a host of former Fury stars invovled in the squad.

The victory at the club’s new top-of-the-range 1,600 seater arena, based at PlaySport Scotland leisure complex in East Kilbride, leaves them undefeated in Pool B with two wins out of two.

Ex-Fury duo Kyle Jimenez and Fraser Malcolm both played and scored.