Basketball Flyers hit the top after big final quarter against Phoenix
BRISTOL Flyers moved to top of the BBL Championship standings with a nail biting 78-73 win over Cheshire Phoenix on Friday night.
VJ King led the way with a season-high 32-point, 11-rebound double-double to see Bristol’s record improve to 8-3 on the season.
The game started with Flyers instantaneously asserting their dominance over Phoenix and sprinting to a 12-0 lead, before going up by as many as 15 (20-5), led by King who scored 13 of those. Coach Thomas was forced to call a time-out to prevent the situation from getting any worse for his team.
Whatever he told his players clearly worked, as they went on an 11-0 run of their own, led by their tough defence which forced the home side to stay scoreless for six consecutive possessions. It was Coach Kapoulas’ turn to now call a time-out, with the difference at just four points (20-16).
Cheshire, however, didn’t stop hustling on defence and managed to finish the first quarter all tied at 21 apiece – showing their impressive turnaround from being 15 points down.
The second period started in a similar way to how the first ended, with Phoenix playing suffocating defence and forcing their opponents to turn the ball over. The visitors capitalised on their defence by utilising the fast break and managed to take the lead for the first time in the game and even go up by as many as nine points (23-32).
Flyers managed to regain their composure and led by their defence, clawing back the deficit. King continued his offensive dominance, scoring his season average of 17 points with three minutes to go before the half. Bristol even managed to briefly retake the lead (34-32) in the last minute of the quarter, before Tahjai Teague scored a three-pointer to help his team lead at the break by 35-34.
The second half started very differently to the first, with the two teams evenly matched throughout the first 10 minutes. Unlike the other two periods where one team would go on a big run and then the other would reciprocate, the third quarter was even throughout.
Cheshire, however, managed to outscore their opponents by four points and take a five-point lead going into the fourth (52-57).
The final quarter began with the two teams again trading buckets – every time the visitors tried to increase their lead and pull away, Bristol found a way to claw their way back in. Their long-range shooting was particularly crucial for that, making three 3s back-toback and shooting 47 per cent from behind the arc for the game.
Flyers managed to regain the lead with just under five minutes left (67-66) and held on to it until the end. Despite Phoenix’s tenacious defence, they were unable to edge ahead when they had the chance.
With 20 seconds left, and Bristol up by four points (74-70), Jamell Anderson came up with a big play and stole the ball, before setting former Flyer Marcus Evans off on the fast break, where he scored an and-1, bringing his team to within one (74-73). Cheshire quickly fouled King and sent him to the line, where he made both free throws and put Flyers up by three points with 15 seconds left (76-73), with Coach Thomas calling a timeout to plan the last offence.
Cheshire was unable to score that all-important three to send the game to overtime, with King securing the rebound and essentially ending the game, taking his team to the top of the standings.
This report first appeared on www.bristolfyers.co.uk.