FURY GO 7 – 1 AS THEY BRING BLAZE UNDER CONTROL

Scottish Senior Men’s Division 1 Basketball Championship

25pts from Austrian forward Adam Hammerschmidt was the big number for Fury as they produced a strong team performance to hand a key loss to one of their main title rivals, capitol side Boroughmuir Blaze. Cheered on by another great crowd, the Sony sponsored side stormed out the blocks with an impressive 25-13 opening quarter. That spell saw Fury hit 4 threes – Eddy Leginas ( 2), Hammerschmidt and captain Keith Bunyan, 1 apiece.

The second was a period where Fury went to their bench with Connor Martin hitting the 5th Fury three of the game and new signing, Bulgarian Ivan Ganchev coming in and making a nice driving two point play. Zigy Dauksas also added to Fury’s points from the line, but it was Blaze who got the better of the period bringing the game to a single point at the half 35-34 and the Fury fans once again set for a nail biting second half. But things were a bit easier when Fury produced a strong 3rd stanza with Kornelius Dauksas -6pts and Hammerschmidt -8pts , that included back to back threes pushing Fury into a double digit lead. An 8th team 3 from Bunyan and great play by starting guard Bryan Munnoch saw Fury lead by 11 going into the final quarter.

That period saw Martin continue to play well off the bench with the hard working Greg Foussas involved in all aspects of the game. Eddy Leginas and Hammerschmidt dispelled any hope Blaze had of a comeback in the final minutes with Leginas adding a further 6 personal and the Austrian ace – 7 personal for the 15 pt win and a 7 wins and 1 loss record in the Championship to date , that sees Fury stay on top of the table.

While Hammerschmidt top scored on 25, Leginas had another productive game with 15, Kornelius Douksas on 10 with Bunyan and Munnoch sharing 16.

Fury Headcoach John Bunyan commented to Heraldsport –

‘ Winning against Blaze means you have worked very hard and overcome their pressing uptempo game which has been so successful for them. There were a few kind words from Blaze before the game that ‘Fury had set the benchmark in the past 5 seasons’ and that’s appreciated but Blaze themselves can take credit for continuing to be a key contender in any Mens competition and we knew we had to be at our best to get the win.

Kornelius Dauksas again showed what a revelation he has been since coming into the starting line-up not just is he a big presence on the defensive end but he is a capable scorer who will get even better. We are starting to get used to our new court and 10 threes in the game - part of our DNA so that was another positive, shooting 48.5% from behind the arc.

I felt the players who came off the bench, as in last weeks game against Edinburgh University did a great job. If you get 16pts from the bench, which we did, you will invariably be in a good position. Our new signing – Bulgarian, Ivan Gnachev looked comfortable and given he has only been at one practice I am happy he will become a key part of our team.

A big stat for us in the game was that we were able to hold Blaze, a team that average 20pts a quarter, to a 14pt average for 3 of the periods and that indicates how hard we worked on the defensive end. “