Fury go to down to US stars – News | King’s Lynn Fury
In Fury’s second pre season game it was a fantastic experience as we hosted USA select Blue. A side made up of US players hopeful of finding professional contracts in Europe.
Before the game the players from the US side hosted a clinic for Fury U16′s which was inspiring for the youngsters.
In the game itself Fury struggled early with the US sides pressure D trailing 8-0, but started to find their feet led by Giedrius Pakalniskis and the first period ended with Fury trailing 34 – 25.
In the second period the US side looked to put the game away taking a 15 point lead but Mindaugas Spukas and Eivydas Aleksa who was making an emotional farewell before his move to Worcester Uni combined for 13 points to bring the lead to just 49 – 47. Trialist Audrius Gudekis impressed with a run of 9 points of his own to keep the game close but with half time approaching a big 3 from USA stole Furys momentum to trail 69-59 at the break.
The longer 12 minute periods where clearly a factor as Coach Bamfield used the extra time to give all 14 of his players court time.
The third period remained competitive as Fury led by excellent guard play and anchored by superb play from Deividas Butkevicius but the game swung on a couple of key moments out of Fury’s grasp. Ironically the swings came on inguarded 15 ft free shots as Fury missed 10 from 12 over a 4 minute spell with Blue again ladning a buzzer 3 the lead had slipped from a potential 5 to a unassailable 17.
Credit to Fury realising this was a training exercise in preperation for the season the side played strong in the 4th period 30 – 32 scoring but could not close the gap in a meaningful way.
Final Score Fury 117 USA Select 136
Bamfield “I was pleased with the side today we fixed a number of problems that i was unhappy about in the last game. There was little more atmosphere around the team and we fought hard for 48 minutes. Giedrius and Deividas were superb and will lead our side from the front this year while Audrius and Arnas have started to settle and played really well. It was also nice to give Kobe a send off game and see further senior development for 16 year old Saul Holland, 17 year old Vytau Girdzius and 18 year old Luke Huggins.”
Top scorers;
Fury Pakalniskis 27, Butkevicius 27, Gudekis 23 & Aleksa 17
USA (no names available)
#50 44, #49 18, #46 17 & #51 16
You can see footage of the game on youtube;