BBL Championship
Bristol Flyers 78-60 Surrey Scorchers (15-12, 21-21, 24-19, 18-8)
Flyers – Bell 19, Delpeche 15, multiple 11; Scorchers – Martin 15, Jefferson 13, Johnson 11
Leicester Riders Caledonia Gladiators (21-20, 30-15, 28-18, 21-14)
Riders – Whelan 25, Thornton 16, Loving 11; Gladiators – Malcolm 12, Burns 12, Sloan
Bristol Flyers triumphed 78-60 over Surrey Scorchers at the SGS College Arena, while Leicester Riders gained a measure of revenge on Caladonia Gladiators with a xx-xx win at the Morningside Arena on Friday night.
Final scores don’t always tell the story of a basketball game, but sometimes they do – and tonight, fans were treated to both.
While the 18-point Flyers win over the Scorchers signifies a competitive contest – with Thomas Bell overcoming good defence from the visitors at SGS College Arena to score 19 – the comfortable Leicester Riders win over the Caledonia Gladiators was a more dominant affair.
The Riders got some payback after dropping two games to the Scottish outfit thanks to 25 points from Patrick Whelan, who was on form from start to finish for Leicester.
It’s tough for any team to enter the SGS College Arena in Bristol to take on the Flyers. The home team was tied at the top of the BBL Championship standings on points heading into Friday night’s clash.
That might have been intimidating to the Surrey Scorchers – who were at the bottom of the table – but the visitors didn’t show any such signs of hesitancy and came out of the gates with energy to take an early lead.
It was Quincy Taylor who hit the game’s opener with a big three, but Josh Jefferson assisted him on the kickout. He also made his presence on defence by stealing the ball away from a Tevin Olison turnover and Jefferson raced downcourt for a lay-up.
The home team settled down and got back into it by controlling the boards. It was captain Malcolm Delpeche, especially on the offensive end, muscling his way into offensive rebounds on multiple occasions to go back up for contested buckets twice in the opening few minutes.
This helped his Flyers take control of the first quarter and they finished it ahead 15-12.
It stayed competitive throughout the first half, and while the Bristol lead opened up slightly, the Scorchers were still fighting and moving the ball well – this meant Padiet Wang could get into the lane and find Ryan Martin for three, which caused…
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