
Flyers Women complete double-winning weekend
Posted: Tuesday, February 19th 2019
Monday, September 17th 2018
Bristol Flyers statistician Owen Parker takes an in-depth look at the key stats which led to Saturday’s pre-season victory over the Welsh national team.
It is an honour to take over this column from Aaron Eamer as he takes up a new role with the Leicester Riders organisation. I hope I can make the numbers interesting, as he did throughout last season.
We’ll start by looking at Bristol’s 112-32 pre-season victory over Team Basketball Wales. The 80 point margin was accrued by winning the battle across almost every statistical category with one notable exception.
Flyers basketball has been built on a principle that strong defence leads to effective offence. This was clearly displayed in the game. The Flyers’ stifling defence forced a huge 43 turnovers. From these extra possessions Flyers were able to convert 60 points; more than half of the team’s scoring came on a possession sparked by a turnover. Creating turnovers also allowed transition basketball, with Flyers amassing 34 fast break points over the course of the game.
Flyers were very successful in limiting penetration and protecting the basket, only conceding six points in the paint whilst limiting Wales to just 22% from the field. Flyers also committed fewer fouls than their opponents with just 13 in total.
Transition, strong drives and good ball movement led to a spectacular two point field goal percentage of 71%. The team will hope to carry over strong shot selection into next week’s season opener, but anything higher than 50% is superb. Flyers’ guards Lewis Champion and Jalan McCloud led the unselfish play with 15 assists (eight and seven respectively). Every Flyers player contributed to the scoring and five got into double figures.
Along with generating extra chances to score through turnovers, Flyers also crushed the battle of the boards. Bristol corralled 54 rebounds from missed shots, while Wales were only able to recover 28. On the offensive end Flyers grabbed 22 boards, while Wales only hauled in 19 defensive rebounds - after a Flyers miss in this game the attacking team recovered the ball more often than not. This fed into additional scoring from second chance points to the tune of 19 points for Flyers.
With Tevin Falzon resting a shoulder injury, the Flyers front court duo of Marcus Delpeche and Daniel Edozie led the rebounding push. Both players achieved a double-double for points and rebounds.
Edozie had 13 points and ten rebounds. His performance also included anchoring the defence with a team high seven steals, four assists and a well disciplined team-leading 75% field goal percentage. Edozie said he learned about captaining a team from Flyers legend Greg Streete and Streete would be proud of the leadership on display here.
Delpeche continued his strong pre-season form with 20 points, 12 rebounds and two blocked shots. His scoring came from a combination of running the floor and post play. Fred Thomas also poured in 20 points and was not far away from breaking into double figure steals; his wide wingspan and active defence netted him six steals.
Wales held the day on one important statistical category - free throw shooting. Flyers shot an incongruous 44% (8-18) from the foul line in contrast to a solid performance in other areas. In a close game, those missed points could be crucial. Wales fared only slightly better with 50% from the line on slightly fewer opportunities (6-12).
Both teams struggled from three point range. Flyers hit just eight from 29 from beyond the arc, whilst Wales fared no better with just four from 16 of their triples dropping in. Both sides can make gains in efficiency from the charity stripe and outside the arc.
Do you agree with Owen? Follow him on Twitter @OwenParker83 and let him know what you think!
Posted: Tuesday, February 19th 2019
Posted: Monday, February 18th 2019
Posted: Sunday, February 17th 2019
Posted: Sunday, February 17th 2019
Harry Ascherl has been called up for England U18s' 42-player squad for this week’s development camp in Bristol (21-24 February).
Posted: Thursday, February 21st 2019 • Rugby
Matty Taylor says the team are concentrating on a strong league campaign, with just a third of the 2018/19 season remaining.
Posted: Thursday, February 21st 2019 • Football
Matty Taylor speaks to the gathered media ahead of City's Sky Bet Championship clash at Norwich City.
Posted: Thursday, February 21st 2019 • Football
City supporters are reminded that there is no pay on the day option at Norwich City this weekend, with just shy of 1,000 tickets already sold.
Posted: Thursday, February 21st 2019 • Football
Bristol City Women endured a tough night at Kingsmeadow as hat-tricks from Fran Kirby and Bethany England saw Chelsea run out 6-0 winners on Wednesday evening.
Posted: Wednesday, February 20th 2019 • Football