Falkirk Fury's senior men reign down on Dunfermline to lift SBC Scottish Cup trophy

Incredibly Fury are six from six in these senior men’s finals and it was Reign they defeated when they last won it two seasons ago. The win gives Fury Men a seven from ten record in the Scottish Cup.

The match started with Reign in the driving seat and an eight-point first quarter lead at 25-17.

B ut Fury got to grips with the Dunfermline offence in the second and third quarters, holding them to single digits in each , while Fury maintained their offence with 15 points and 21 points to give them an 11- point lead going into the final stanza.

But the story of the opening three periods had seen Fury take a 9-8 lead on the back of a Jonny Bunyan three midway through the first, and that lead was not to return until the third with Reign pulling clear in the first period until Murray Hendry closed the game back to one point with two minutes to go in the second.

The teams remained scoreless for a 33-32 half-time Reign lead.

At the start of the third period, Fury's American Javon Daniels switched into the starting line-up and that proved to be the catalyst for the Falkirk side as Daniels stroked home back to back threes and Fury were on their way. Scores from Murray Hendry and Eddie Leginas forced Reign into a timeout, now trailing 41-33.

Out of the timeout, Fury continued to put points on the board from Hendry, Bunyan and Sardar Pandher who was bringing an additional scoring threat to Fury. A three from Bunyan and scores from Hendry and Leginas gave Fury the 53-42 lead at the end of the third. The teams then exchanged baskets in the fourth with a high scoring 26-25 period for Fury.

Fury were led by MVP Bunyan, who notched an 80 per cent stat line. Lithuanian point guard Leginas played a strong all round game with 16 points with Hendry getting a big double double on ten points. Javon Daniels and Sardar Pandher shared 14 points.

Off the bench Finlay Hendry with five points made some key plays and also off the bench Ziggy Dauksas, Keith Bunyan and Evaldis Burksaitis played key minutes.

While Adnan Jalil started for Fury and played 16 minutes, he struggled to combat flu like symptoms and had to come out the game. Completing Fury's line-up were back up guards Bryan Munnoch and Jack Shand.

Fury were coached by John Bunyan and assistant Bryan Munnoch. Bunyan said of the win: “This was as expected a tough game against a side who have a number of very talented home grown players. We knew they would push us in transition and we did not adapt well to that in the first quarter. We altered our defence and that proved key, they struggled to cope with Jonny Bunyan and Javon Daniels hitting back to back threes at the start of the third was big for us.

"All of our players did an excellent job and once again we have had to change line-ups and rotations with players out and players coming in. This is quite unusual for us as we generally have a very consistent starting five and team in general each season, so full credit to our players for continuing to adapt and change and credit to Reign for making it a great final.

"I also want to say a big thanks to our fans, the best in the league, they respect the opposition and appreciate entertaining and exciting basketball. Also big thanks to the officials all weekend on the floor and the table and to Basketball Scotland.

“I do also consider what Fury did during the pandemic and how that has helped us reach where we are today. We managed to source outdoor courts and used Carronvale when we were met with a negative attitude from Falkirk Council around facilities. It was a difficult time when we had no games but everyone bought in, trained and stayed together.”