Women’s Report: Bristol Flyers 69-57 Birmingham Elite

Birmingham’s Lucy Buxton opened the scoring, and immediately after Flo Ward threw a downcourt pass to Maialen Zilbeti for the Flyers’ first points of the game. The Flyers then took advantage of some sloppy ball handling and sluggish play from Birmingham and went to an early ten-point lead.

Hannah Wallace intercepted a pass and made the subsequent basket, but the Flyers’ grip on the game started to loosen. Good looks from Gemma Salmon bridged the gap for Birmingham, but the Flyers were able to finish the first quarter up by three.

The Flyers displayed great transitional play, ball movement and team communication into the second quarter, with Christina Bigica and Zilbeti adding the most to the scoreline. As the quarter went on, Birmingham started to reduce the gap and a jump shot from Jessica Cooper made it a three-point game in the final minute of the half.

Liisa Juul lifted her team with a buzzer-beating three-pointer to close out the half, which also put the Flyers ahead 37-31.

After a heated, back-and-forth start to the second half, the Flyers’ defensive pressure saw Birmingham make too many mistakes, and Bristol started to take advantage on the offensive end. 

Birmingham changed their defensive strategy – placing their backcourt duo under the basket – which saw the Flyers’ chances limited late in the quarter. Rebecca Brindley ended the period with a three for Birmingham, but the Flyers were still ahead 54 points to 47.

Birmingham opened the fourth with six unanswered points, which made it a one-point game. A three from Wallace gave the Flyers some breathing room, and Bigica opened the gap more with a layup.

A three from Zilbeti late in the quarter gave the Flyers back their double-digit lead, and added another layup with just over two minutes remaining in the game. Zilbeti finished as the game’s top scorer with 22 points, followed by Bigica who had 20.

Birmingham picked up a few baskets at the end of the game, but it did nothing to effect the outcome

The team can next be seen in action in their Cup quarter-final matchup against Northamptonshire Titans on October 28th at Bristol Metropolitan Academy.

Bristol Flyers Women are always on the lookout for new players, coaches and volunteers.  Anybody who's interested and committed is always welcome to join the Flyers Family. Contact Flyers Women at flyerswomen@gmail.com 

Written by Jack Ford. A recent member of the Flyers Family, Jack has been volunteering with Bristol Flyers writing game reports on Flyers Women for the website and game day programme.