Heavy defeat ends Reign’s hopes of league and cup double

Dunfermline Reign’s hopes of picking up their first Scottish National senior basketball championship honours took a tumble when they went down heavily 87-72 to Falkirk Fury in the Scottish Cup semi-final at St Columba’s HS.

It was their first defeat of the season and an end to any hopes of a cup and league double.

But worse the scale of the defeat may have been morale-damaging, especially as the Fifers have to play the Falkirk side again in the league straight away at Fury’s home court at Grangemouth Sports Centre on Friday at 8pm.

Reign head coach Kevin Pringle, who is also CEO of Basketballscotland, could offer no specific reason for the upset: “They were simply better on the day and deserved to win,” he said.

There had been fears that Reign’s play-maker Edinburgh University student Craig Ferguson might not play because of an ankle injury sustained at the previous Sunday’s Scottish Student Sport’s team training session but the slightly built point guard took his place in the starting five as usual.

Ferguson may, however, have harboured fitness fears for he appeared much more tense than usual and committed at least two uncharacteristic fouls.

The other reason however was that he faced a much livelier opponent than usual in Bantu Burroughs, the ex-Glasgow Rocks and Scotland Commonwealth Games rep who not only put him under pressure but also contrived to score 18 points himself.

But it was the Abertay graduate Boris Matrakov who was the biggest problem as the Bulgarian wracked up 27 points.

Austrian Adam Hammerschmidt, added 20 in a late flurry after Fury led 39-28 at half-time.

Only Jake Sibbald managed to find the target consistently for Reign, scoring 25 while Bruce Taylor added 15, Dutchman Lauritz Juffer 11 and Ferguson eight.

Juffer wasn’t despondent after his first game for Reign: “I don’t think that will happen the next time, it was simply that our shots were not dropping.”

Fury will now meet St Mirren in the Cup final in February, the Paisley side having swamped Ayrshire Tornadoes 134-81 in the other semi-final.

City of Edinburgh Kats will play Edinburgh University in all capital women’s final, but Perth Phoenix will contest the cadette women’s final after beating Stirling Knights 69-56.