Bristol outlast determined Blazers in quarter finals
4th April 2011by Dave Ryan
Division One Men's league champions Bristol Academy Flyers progressed to the Final Four in Manchester with a 91-90 home victory over Derby Trailblazers on Saturday.
The game tip off was delayed due to kit clash and Flyers, clearly affected by the interruption, found themselves trailing 9-1 early in the game. A lay up by Bristol captain Greg Streete and free throws by forward Davis Bowne gave the home team the lead for the first time in the game as Bristol finished the first period up by two, 21-19.
Flyers went on to extend their lead to as many as seven points but two dunks by Trailblazers forward Joel Madourie brought the visitors within striking distance at 40-37. A technical called on Flyers coach Andreas Kapoulas gave the opportunity to Derby to cut the deficit further to 1 point and a basket by Gayle followed by a missed three point opportunity by Bristol, gave Derby a 41-40 half-time lead.
Derby started the third period strongly and with a lay up by Mark Woodhouse, the visitors went up by eight points at 56-48 forcing Kapoulas to call a time out. Bristol's Tyrone Treasure cut the visitors lead to four with back to back baskets straight after the time-out.
With the visitors up 59-55, Streete drove to the basket but was fouled hard and was unable to continue the game due to a deep cut over his eyebrow, leaving him with 16 stitches. Propelled by their captain's injury, Bristol went on to secure a 66-63 lead at the final break.
Back to back threes by Flyers' Tony Watson and Doug McLaughlin-Williams forced the Blazers to call a time out as Bristol went up 74-65 with eight minutes remaining in the game. Derby tried to get back to the game with three point shooting in the last minutes of the game, but the Flyers' composure on the free throw line was enough to secure a 91-90 victory.
Treasure and McLaughlin-Williams were top scorers for the Flyers with 25 and 24 points respectively while Bowne added 13 points and nine boards and Rob Loftman had 11 points and nine assists. Derby's Joel Madourie led all scorers with 33 points and nine rebounds, while Martyn Gayle had 23 points and Woodhouse 14.
Kapoulas was pleased in the manner his team responded to the Derby challenge despite the injury that Streete sustained: "Getting to the Final Four was a real team effort. A number of things happened in this game that could have affected our concentration. But our guys again demonstrated that they are very tough and really play for each other. I think a lot of people talk about Tyrone [Treasure] and Doug [McLaughlin-Williams] and their great scoring ability and forget about the group strength that the Flyers possess. We had different players step up at different times when needed and I think that's what makes us so competitive.
"The key player for me was Tony Watson. He was sensational and contributed in so many different ways. Especially when Greg got hurt, Tony just gave us the much needed energy on both ends of the court.
"Greg is fine but had to have 16 stitches. We are so glad it nothing more serious as he is the heart of the Flyers. When he was down and I said that we need to take him straight to ER, he said to me no and that he still wants to play! He is a leader and represents all the good things about Flyers basketball. Speaking to him in hospital afterwards, he is really looking forward to the Final Four."
Derby assistant coach Steve Baxter was philosophical after the game: "Whilst we're obviously very disappointed that our season has come to a premature end, we were very proud of our performance against a good Bristol side. We showed some passion and fight right up until the end and on another night we could well have got the victory.
"We shot over 60% from the field and out-rebounded our opponents and that should be enough to win any game, but the bottom line is we committed 23 turnovers which is way too many. Too often we got ourselves into a good position and then gave the ball away.
"Take nothing away from Bristol though, they are deserved league champions and they held there nerve when we made our runs. We were up 8 points in the second half and Ty Treasure and McLaughlin-Williams made some very big plays for them down the stretch.
"Missing Dave Attewell and Matt Shaw we needed some other guys to step up and they did that tonight. Joel Madourie was virtually unstoppable shooting 14/17 from the field and 5/6 from the line. Our inside players also battled really hard but we still gave up 15 offensive rebounds.
"Being knocked out of the playoffs at the quarter final stage is a bitter pill to swallow. We will take a little time off now and then look to rebuild for next season. There have been some good signs this year but at the end of the day we have underachieved against our aims. It's no good feeling sorry for ourselves though, we need to pick ourselves up and look what we could have done differently both individually and collectively."