Basketball Battling Flyers fall just short at high-flying Eagles
BRISTOL Flyers lost 88-83 on the road to Newcastle Eagles, despite a fourth-quarter comeback on Friday night.
Eric Lockett led the way for Flyers with a 22-point, 10-rebound double-double.
Both sides opened the game with their offence firing on all cylinders. Lockett skipped the ball to Ben Mockford for a three-pointer, before Cortez Edwards answered for with a drive to the basket. Eagles responded to Flyers early lead and tied the game up at 14 points apiece with an alley-oop from cup final MVP Justin Gordon.
Eagles were able to get their transition game going behind turnovers from Bristol and Coach Kapoulas took a timeout to talk things over. Bench production from Justin Baker and Josh Wilcher kept the game close. Lockett scored ten points in the first quarter and his energy drove the team forward. He found Teddy Okereafor open at the top of the arc for a go-ahead three. Eagles veteran Rahmon Fletcher ended the high-scoring first quarter with a jump shot to put Eagles back in the lead at 27-26.
Baker had a hot start to the second, scoring nine of his 14 points in the period. Eagles made a 7-0 run late in the quarter, establishing their biggest lead so far, behind buckets from Edwards and Gordon. Daniel Edozie stripped the ball and made the pass ahead to Lockett for a fast break score to make it 49-41 at the half.
Defensive stops were hard to come by and Eagles stretched their lead. Okereafor seized three steals late in the quarter to spark a Flyers run and Wilcher did the damage on the offensive end, battling to the foul line and splashing a pair of threes off dimes from Okereafor. The scoring outburst closed the gap back to 70-59 at the end of the third period.
Eagles increased the lead to 19 points as they stifled Flyers’ scoring early in the fourth quarter. Gordon punctuated the run with a high-flying dunk on his way to a game-high 23 points. Bristol showed great character to keep battling down the stretch. Josh Rogers spotted up for three and Marcus Delpeche followed with back-to-back buckets. Newcastle took a timeout, but Rogers remained dialled in from outside the arc, connecting on another triple. Flyers cut the lead to single figures with just more than two minutes remaining. Back-to-back scores from Lockett and a lefty layup from Mockford cut it to five with 48 seconds on the clock.
Eagles kept calm under pressure and worked the clock. Fletcher was able to get to the foul line to finish off an 18-point, 15-assist doubledouble and Rogers closed out the game with a final score.
» This article first appeared on www.bristolflyers.co.uk.