Fury Under-18s at the double with league title

Fury's under-18 boys saw off Perth for a second week in a row to land their second silverware in a week. Picture Alan Murray

The Falkirk club won the Scottish Division 1 with a hard fought victory over Perth Phoenix – the team they had defeated the previous weekend in the the Scottish Cup Final.

The result 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 two games still to play but cannot now be beaten with their nearest rivals St. Mirren on three 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 seven days previously.

Fury trailed the opening period 19-15 and were down by two points 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 eight going into the final stanza.

But the Falkirk side are not the League’s best team for no reason and in the fourth Fury displayed the form that has seen them lose only one game all season.

A 25-9 quarter – sparked again, like the Cup Final, by the play of Daniel Olubalade – meant Fury proved too strong for Phoenix down the stretch.

Rutter was immense, 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.

Apart from some great individual performances, what got Fury through this game was teamwork and a very strong group of players who all contributed.

Keith Bunyan, Fury Junior Men’s coach, said: “It’s 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.

“I would take this opportunity to thank Ewan for his help with the team and the work Wai and Gordon do 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.”