Title race heats up as Falkirk Fury pick up road win while Buddies beat Blaze

And thanks to rivals Boroughmuir Blaze tasting defeat in double overtime against St Mirren – Fury are in a great position with the race for the trophy now very much a three way battle between the sides mentioned.

The trio sit within one game of each other with Blaze – suffering their first loss of the season - moving to 12-1 for the campaign with St Mirren hot on their heels in joint second spot on 10-2 for the season.

Against the capital Kings, the visiting Falkirk team surged to an early eight point lead, with Adnan Jalil then hitting a three point shot to put his side 13-5 ahead halfway through the opening quarter.

However some great outside shooting from the home side saw them go into the second stanza with a 25-21 point lead.

The second period then saw Fury close the gap and in a basket-for-basket game, the sides ended up with only one point separating them at the half with Fury ahead 47-46.

The third period proved decisive for Fury with a 23-10 scoreline. Locking in on their defence, Fury were now in control and with a 21-16 final quarter, taking the game to a 91-72 scoreline.

Ex-BBL professional Ali Fraser was the leading scorer with 28 points personal with his former Glasgow Rocks team-mates Murray Hendry on 17 points with Jonny Bunyan hitting 13 points.

Fury's Lithuanian guard Eddy Leginas had ten points personal with fellow countryman Ziggy Dauksas grabbing nine points alongside Adnan Jalil, who hit eight points while providing a solid defence.

SU student Ammar Ilyas played a key role off the bench in the guard spot while former Fury junior Sardar Pandher made his first appearance of the season.

“Playing the Kings on the road is always a challenging and tough game,” head coach John Bunyan said looking back on the victory. “The score did not reflect how close the game was and as usual Kings gave us a lot of problems.

“That being said, our players focused in on defence in the third period and that gave us the cushion to get the win. It was good to have Ammar back in our line-up as we still await Bantu Burroughs getting back on the court from injury.

"Sardar will give us some additional size in the forward spot and we are still a team in progress with so many new elements added to last season's side.

"We now face Blaze in the Scottish Cup semi-final tomorrow night and our games recently against them have been of the highest quality and I expect this to be no different - there will be many talented players on show but it will be down to team basketball if we want to reach the final.”

Fury’s senior men Scottish Cup semi-final against Boroughmuir Blaze is on Friday, February 2, with a 7.45pm tip-off in Grangemouth. Spectator admission is at 7.20pm - the winner will face Dunfermline Reign in the final.