7.9.2018: Boroughmuir Blaze - Sony Center Fury 65:62
FURY BEATEN IN FINAL SECONDS BY BLAZE
SONY CENTRE FURY 62 BOROUGHMUIR BLAZE 65
Scottish Championship Senior Men Division 1
With the sides tied at 62 apiece Blaze nailed a 3pt shot with 2 seconds of the game remaining to take a win that seemed for most of the match to be going Fury’s way. Despite a game high 20pts from ex Glasgow Rock, Bulgarian Boris Matrakov on his debut, the Falkirk side struggled with their execution on offence and paid the penalty down the stretch when Blaze took the lead for almost the first time in the game with just over a minute to play. Fury had taken a low scoring opening period 13-10 but even that was marred by bad decisions in the final 24 seconds when a scoreline of 15-8 should have been the outcome. The second saw Fury open with three 3’s – one from Austrian Adam Hammerschmidt and back to back 3’s from captain Keith Bunyan. Fury began to pull clear, but three 3’s from Blaze themselves kept the scoreline close at 31-23 at the half. The third was the highest scoring quarter with the teams sharing 38 pts and Fury retaining their 8pt lead going into the final stanza. Bunyan had added a further 2 threes in the third with Matrakov adding 6 personal. As the 4th moved to the final 4 minutes Fury had pushed the lead out to 11 and it looked as though there was no way back for Blaze. Then 3 consecutive unanswered 3’s from the home side saw the game reduced to 2pts. Blaze then edged clear in the final minute with Matrakov twice pulling Fury back level and the scores were tied at 62 apiece with 8 seconds on the clock. A Blaze timeout saw Fury work hard to deny the inside play and fail to get out on the decisive and game winning three from the Capital side.
Fury top scorers – Matrakov 20; Bunyan 12; Hammerschmidt 10.
Fury Headcoach John Bunyan commented to Heraldsport after the game –
“Its clearly a disappointing loss, but at this stage of the season 2 games in, we can recover from it. While we have signed a quality player in Boris and he ended the game top scorer, the transition within the team adapting to new personnel can take time. Defensively we lacked in a couple of areas and we need to address these. Offensively, we simply were not at our best, but I do not want to take away from Blaze , who just kept working hard and at times looked as though they wanted the win more than us. We have a quality group of players and in the coming weeks we need to be at a level that gets us back to the top. “