Falkirk Fury's senior men reach Scottish Cup final after victory over rivals Boroughmuir Blaze
Both sides put on a show at Grangemouth Sports Complex, with a capacity crowd being treated to a whopping 190-point match.
And it was Fury who came out firing, taking the opening quarter 29-19.
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Hide AdAli Fraser was in unstoppable form early on alongside his former Glasgow Gladiators team-mate Jonny Bunyan, and the latter nailed a long range three to put Fury 17-8 ahead, with the holders on the ropes early on.
Bunyan then hit back to back threes to give Fury a strong 24-11 lead at the break.
However, you could see that Blaze did not win a treble last season for no reason and in the second period they dug deep to stay in the game, edging the quarter 23-21 to reduce Fury’s lead to just eight.
The capital side continued to work hard, taking the third stanza 20-17 to set up a nail biting final period with only five points between the sides.
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Hide AdWith six minutes left, a crucial three-point shot from Fraser gave Fury the lead again.
The teams continued to trade baskets with Blaze’s American star James MacLain continuing to make almost every shot he took.
In the final stages, Fury finally found some daylight when Bunyan hit a three and Murray Hendry scored two – with that seeing the home side go 93-81 ahead.
With the players heading to the foul line in the final minute, it was Fury who stayed composed and they secured an eight-point win and a place in the cup final.
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Hide AdMacLain's final tally of 31 points was not enough to see his Blaze side through in the end.
Fury's Fraser was the semi-final’s top scorer with an impressive haul of 37 points. Jonny Bunyan was behind him on 18 points, including three threes, while Murray Hendry scored 17 points. Eddie Leginas rounded off Fury’s scoring with 13 points personal.
Speaking after the match on Friday night, Fury’s head coach John Bunyan praised both teams for putting on ‘a great spectacle’ as his side came out on top of a tie that had it all.
He said: "Thanks firstly to the fans and to Blaze for another exciting game between our clubs, played in a truly sporting manner.
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Hide Ad"The teams respect each other and the quality of play from both sides, particularly on the offensive end, was exceptional.
"Scottish basketball needs to work on the promotion of games like this and this is what gets players into the sport.
"Once again we had a great support, lots of younger players and parents from all our club teams and many neutral fans.
"That makes a game like this the spectacle it was.”
Bunyan said his players had to work hard throughout the game as Blaze could put 10-12 points on the board in a minute so Fury could never relax or ease off.
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Hide AdHe added: “Ali was superb with Jonny and Eddie not only scoring but controlling the game. Murray once again showed what a great team player he is and played very well at both ends of the floor.
"Adnan Jalil, Ziggy Dauksas and Javon Daniels gave us great spells on the court and one of our former juniors - Sardar Pandher – came on and did a great job.
“We move on to the final against Dunfermline Reign and that will be a tough game. We have to ignore our two wins against them in the league this season.
"It was Reign we last played in the cup final two seasons ago and that went down to the wire, with us just getting the win, so there will be no complacency. "
Fury senior men play Dunfermline Reign in the men’s Scottish Cup final at the Regional Performance Centre in Dundee on Saturday with a 7.30pm tip.