FURY JUNIOR MEN ARE SCOTTISH CHAMPIONS!

SONY CENTRE FURY 68 PERTH PHOENIX 60 Scottish Championship U18 Men Division 1

Adam Rutter led Fury with 22pts as the Falkirk club became Scottish Division 1 Champions after a hard fought win over Perth Phoenix –the team they had defeated last week-end as they won the Scottish Cup Final. This makes Fury League and Cup Champions for season 17-18 and the team will look to make it a historic Junior Men’s treble in the Play-Offs in March. Fury have taken the Championship title with 2 games still to play but cannot now be beaten with their nearest rivals St.Mirren on 3 losses. The winning game – played in front of a big crowd at Grangemouth Sports Complex saw the visitors looking to avenge their Cup Final loss – 7 days previously. Fury trailed the opening period 19-15 and were down by 2pts at the half, having been behind by as many as 12 in that second period. Perth’s bigs were causing the Falkirk side a lot of problems, not helped by a cold day at the perimeter as well as next to the basket for Fury. Things did not improve in the third as Perth increased their lead and led after an 18-12 third period by 8 going into the final stanza. But the Falkirk side are not the League’s best team for no reason and in the 4th Fury displayed the form that has seen them lose only 1 game all season. A 25-9 quarter – sparked again, like the Cup Final, by the play of Daniel Olubalade – Fury proved too strong for Phoenix down the stretch. Rutter was immense throughout, with imperious shooting that saw him with a game high 22pts. Cup Final MVP Sardar Pandher had 15 with the hard working Fury Captain Mitchell Stirling on 12. Once again, apart from some great individual performances, what got Fury through this game was teamwork and a very strong group fo players who all contributed. Fury Junior Men’s Coach Keith Bunyan had this to say after the game – ‘ Its been a very rewarding season to date, not just in terms of taking two titles – but to have seen all the players in our squad develop their basketball to a higher level. There has been a great effort in training and the team are very supportive of each other, as are their parents and family. This is potentially one of the strongest squads we have had at Junior Men’s level and is filled with excellent players. I would take this opportunity to thank Ewan for his help with the team and the work Wai and Gordon do in S&C with them also. We will now be planning to make it a treble winning season but as we saw today, teams like Perth will not make that a foregone conclusion.’

Fury Scottish Cup and Division 1 Championship squad – Captain – Mitchell Stirling – Jordan Ferguson – Sardar Pandher – Adam Rutter – Sam Owens – Daniel Olubalade- Kieran Allan – Scott Lothian – Louis Smith – Ben Small – Nathan Cuthbert – James Kerr - Jack Davidson Headcoach Keith Bunyan Assistant Coach Ewan Carlow