On-form Fury have too much firepower for injury-hit Saints

CRAIG RITCHIE

Saints Senior Men suffered the same fate as their cup final defeat as they again came faceto-face with Falkirk Fury.

St Mirren often stay ahead of injury problems but the last week or two have seen that luck run out, with starting point guard Fergus Harte sidelined with a shoulder injury and Eden Duff out through concussion.

Regardless, the Paisley side got off to a solid start as Chris Cleary led the early scoring, helped by Scott Armstrong and Chris Barron before Nick Collins hit a six-point run.

Liam Stevenson then entered the last few minutes of the quarter and immediately hit the first of his five threepointers in the game.

Saints ended the quarter in control at 33-25 having at one stage been as many as 11 points ahead.

The next quarter had the home team chasing Saints and as the quarter drew to a close the teams were trading baskets.

Another 14 points from Collins was followed by another three-pointer from Stevenson to let Saints get to the locker room at 60-59 ahead.

The third period saw the home team go on a run on the back of Ross Gibson’s close range shooting.

He made the first eight points of the period on the way to 29 points, while Saints slipped as many as 10 points behind before Stevenson came off the bench.

He managed to rescue the situation as he hit a trio of three-pointers to get Saints back to 81 points each.

Another long-range effort from Collins and one from Falkirk’s Hammerschmidt closed the scoring in the third as Saints trailed by five.

The final period had Saints’ Barron pushing the ball and hitting his shots in an effort to stay on terms with the home team, which they did until the last three minutes when the size of Gibson and Boris Matrakov close to the basket proved to be their undoing.

A valiant 104 points, so often enough for victory, couldn’t match the Fury’s depth of options as they took the game and likely league runners-up spot at 117-104.