Five things we learned from Flyers v Royals

The Flyers showed us something very different in the early-goings of Friday night’s game, throwing up threes and making them at a consistent rate.

In the first quarter, the home side made 6/11 from behind-the-arc, meaning 18 of their 23 first quarter points came from distance.

That consistency wouldn’t carry through to the rest of the game though as the Flyers went on to make just five more from three-point range, taking 17 more shots in the remaining three quarters.

With three-point opportunities becoming less frequent in the second quarter, the Flyers took to relying on other options – options which were primarily off the bench.

Of the 19 points scored in the second quarter, the Flyers bench were responsible for making 17 of them. This bench line-up was also able to hold the group leaders to just 15 in the quarter to keep hold of the lead at the half.

Marcus Delpeche’s eight points led the side through the period with Fred Thomas the only man to score that started the game.

After the break the Flyers defence seemingly fell apart and it was a case of damage limitation ahead of regrouping before the fourth.

The Royals, having just scored only 15 points in the second quarter, almost doubled that in the third, scoring 28. Ed Lucas was the man causing much of the problems, adding 12 points in the quarter.

It wasn’t down to the Flyers turning over the ball, or giving up offensive rebounds, the Royals were just super-efficient, making 11/19 of their shots.

From giving up a game-high 28 to giving up a game-low 10 in the fourth quarter it was a different attitude from the home team in crunch time.

The Flyers shot well, shooting 9/14 from the field and 100% of their free throws but it was the defence that really stopped the Royals in their tracks. The London side scored just 10 in the quarter, but the biggest point of this was that in the final five-minutes, in crunch-time, they scored just two. In five minutes of basketball the team top of the pile in the BBL Cup scored just two points.

The Flyers scored 16 over the same five minutes, winning the game by 10.

The second half was very much down to which team could score on the fast break. As I mentioned in my last piece, if you can get opportunities on the fast break it’ll mean the opposition defence aren’t set and you can find gaps at a much better rate.

In the third quarter, the Royals scored 13 of their 28 on the fast-break. In the fourth quarter, the Flyers scored 12 of their 26 points on the fast-break which allowed each team to take command of the game. Fortunately for the Flyers, they took command at the end.

A passionate fan of basketball since 2004, Aaron briefly played at SGS (then Filton College) under Head Coach Andreas Kapoulas.

Fast forward a number of years, Aaron now contributes to recording the statistics for the Flyers home games as a club Statistician, you’ll often find him sat at the table courtside taking stats into his laptop at every home game.

Do you agree with Aaron? Follow him on Twitter @eamer and let him know what you think!