MCEWAN HITS 34PTS AS FURY DEFEAT UNBEATEN PHOENIX!!

Scottish Championship U16 Woman Division 1 Scotland International Katie McEwan had a huge 34pt game as Fury Cadettes took their third straight win in a row and handed Championship leaders Perth Phoenix their first league loss of the season. Last weeks Cup Finalists, Perth sat at 10-0 in the Championship but were unable to cope with McEwan, who was not only the games top scorer, but worked hard sharing the ball handling for the Falkirk side. Scotland U15 Internationals – Abby Rutter with 10pts and Eabha Kerr – Fury’s main point guard played above their years as Fury took the win in front of a packed crowd, in one of the best and most exciting games of the season at Grangemouth Sports Complex. The first quarter had seen favorites Phoenix lead 20-14 with McEwan hitting 10 of the opening period points. The second saw the Falkirk side stun Perth with a 19-6 scoreline and Fury take a 7pt lead in at the half. McEwan produced another 10pts to take her tally to 20 at the half with Rutter adding 5 in the Fury second quarter run. The third was close as both teams competed strongly in defence, but Fury continued to stay ahead, taking the period 12-11 and an 8pt lead going into the fourth and final quarter. McEwan had continued to score with 8pts in the third with Kerr chipping in with 4. The final stanza saw the crowd on a knife edge as Perth came back into the game and it looked as though all of Kim Flockhart’s sides hard work might just come up short. McEwan added a further 6pts in the fourth to bring her tally to 34 and as the game levelled, it was 14yr old Abby Rutter who found a big three to keep Fury ahead. Captain Erin Marshall also came up with a massive 2pt play in the final minute to maintain Fury’s lead with Abby Rutter securing the game for Fury with a two point play to give the Sony sponsored side a 58-54 deserved win. The win takes Fury to second spot in the Scottish Division 1 table behind Perth and the game gives the side a massive boost ahead of the Play-Offs. As well as big contributions from McEwan, Rutter, Kerr and Marshall – Rosie Wallace had a big defensive game as she was handed the role of closing down Perth’s key scorer. Wallace embraced the role and like her fellow starters was part of a huge win for the team. Off the bench Vicky Hall gave significant minutes and Coach Kim Flockhart had this to say after the win – ‘ This was a big win for us and we overturned what was a 27pt loss to Perth in the away fixture – a 31pt turnaround. Katie was outstanding in not just her scoring, but handling the ball along with Eabha. This was a team who came into the game with an 84pt scoring average – to restrict them to 54pts shows the fantastic job all our players did on the defensive end. Rosie was excellent in that respect and our game plan regarding their scoring worked well. Abby Rutter was great at both ends of the floor as was Erin and off the bench Vicky gave valuable minutes. We are a young team and we rely on our starters so that can be tough, but we have to judge where we are now – with only one game left in the regular season and where we were at the start of the campaign. How we finish the season – we are on a 3 game winning streak is key to measure how we have trained and developed over that time and that’s a testimony to the work the players have put in’.