FURY SENIOR MEN ARE KINGS AS THEY ARE CROWNED TREBLE CHAMPIONS !

SIGNS EXPRESS FURY 73 CITY OF EDINBURGH KINGS 65

Scottish Senior Men Championship Play - Off Final

3 is the magic number for Signs Express Fury BC Senior Men this season ,as the team made it a season 25 -26 treble after the Falkirk side won the Play -Off Final at Playsport Arena EK with a closely fought 8 pt win over Edinburgh Kings. This is Fury Men's third treble winning season having achieved the feat in seasons 2014 -15 and in 2016 - 17.

The win saw the Signs Express sponsored side make a multitude of ' 3 ' stat lines, highlighting those is the treble winning season taking the Scottish Division 1 title with a 21 - 0 record, the Scottish Cup and now the Play - Off title. The team also secured 3 Peat performances by winning the League and Play-Offs both, for 3 years running and taking 8 of the 9 available Scottish SM titles in the past 3 seasons. Add to that playing a record 32 game season and reaching the Final 4 of the British BCB Trophy it's been a tough, but rewarding season for the team. The Play -Off Final saw Fury go in as no 1 seeds with Kings seeded 2 after finishing runners to Fury in the League. A large crowd saw Fury take an early lead with a 25 - 16 opening quarter, former pro Rocks and Scotland teammates

Jonny Bunyan hitting two three point shots and Ali Fraser 4 two point plays for 14 of the 25 pts. The second period saw the Kings take the quarter with a 17 -12 score line, leaving the Falkirk side 4pts ahead at the half 37 - 33. The third quarter saw both sides battle to take control of the game. A three from Ali Fraser gave Fury their biggest lead of the game half way through the quarter for a 49 -38 score line. But it was the capital side who got the better of the final minutes of the 3rd period as they got the game back to 3pts with a minute remaining at 54 -51. The teams went into the final stanza with the Signs Express sponsored side ahead by 4pts at 56 -52 and all to play for. Jack Hencher opened the period for Fury with a 2pt play to push the lead to 6 and it remained around the 6 - 8pts margin for Fury until Murray Hendry gave Fury a double digit lead with 6 minutes to play at 64 -54. As the Kings tried to close the gap a big 3 by Jonny Bunyan gave Fury a 10pt lead with only 1 minute to play. While the Kings again brought it back to 8pts it was Eddie Leginas who hit a great driving lay - up to restore Fury's 10pt advantage with 40 seconds remaining. An Ali Fraser 2 and a Jonny Bunyan free throw in the final seconds saw Fury take the Play-Off title with an 8pt win and a 73 - 65 final score line. Fury's Ali Fraser was voted the MVP of the Final with 25pts and 11 rebounds. Captain Jonny Bunyan received the Trophy and his experience in the pg spot was once again invaluable to his side. Bunyan had 17 pts with four 3's in his tally, with Murray Hendry on 11pts and 7 rebounds. Eddie Leginas also had 11pts a tally that included three 3's and added 5 assists. Jack Hencher played big minutes with 7 pts. Bantu Burroughs played 26 minutes with a big contribution on the defensive end.

Fury Headcoach John Bunyan commented to Heraldsport after the Final -

"It's been an amazing season with a very talented group of players. While we had won the treble twice before we did not have an undefeated League season in these campaigns as we did this time and add to the fact we played 5 extremely tough British BCB Trophy games right at the start of the season our schedule has been very tough. After our Cup Final win we lost Prince Onwas who had been a great member of our team for literally all season to that point and from the Cup Final onwards we literally have had a different starting line - up in our last 9 games with players out through injury or simply not available. That is always challenging not just from a playing point but in terms of coaching. We have constantly made adjustments and we won our 21st and final league game against Blaze, one of our big rivals with Jonny, Bantu and Ali not playing, that shows the quality of our squad which was, like all teams can be, stretched to the limit. Everybody brings their A game against Fury and when you are undefeated everyone wants to take you down. This has very much been a team treble with no fewer than 7 of our squad being top scorer across our games. To have player's like Zyggi and Humza start and top score when they have mainly come off the bench shows the quality of our team. Adnan and Javon have contributed all season with Yves and Jack coming into the team late on and having a real impact was very important. The challenge we have had from literally every team in the league has been fantastic and in particular the Kings and Rocks have really pushed us close in several games. We never showed up in any game and expected to win and having that mentality is key to our success.

I had a lot of help on the coaching side this season from Keith and Jonny and as usual Gordon has kept the players working on the fitness side. Assembling a team that can compete in the top League in Scotland is challenging never mind in Britain, but we put together not just talented hard working players but a team that played for each other, respected each other, our opposition and down the stretch, when the going got tough, we got it done. I could see after the Final how much it meant to the players, we were billed as a 'pro team' but these guys all work, have family commitments like the rest of the teams in Scotland and are not now training 24/7 and of course 2 of the 'pro players' started at Fury, what a journey for them all."

Fury's 25 -26 season finished with an amazing 5 National titles and 8 Runner - up spots in the 22 National Competitions.