Surrey Scorchers were on the wrong end of an agonising single point defeat on Sunday afternoon as the Bristol Flyers took an 85-86 win at Surrey Sports Park.
Scorchers led the tie from the opening plays but struggled to maintain the focus to take the win, as Flyers’ stole the victory with just 19 seconds left on the game clock.
The home fans took delight in welcoming Jordan Williams back to the home court for the first time since his return this week, watching the Brit take 11 rebounds in the loss. Strength off the bench continued in Darryl Palmer, who led the hosts with 18pts on the night.
Scorchers broke away from the visitors late in the opening quarter to build a 12pt lead at the first break, with Caylin Raftopoulos finding Palmer at the bucket for an alley-oop on the buzzer.
Flyers took a neck-and-neck 2nd period by a single point but still Scorchers were looking strong, with Gerald Robinson picking up a brace of 3 pointers to light up the home arena.
The 11pt half time lead was quickly extended by Alex Owumi in Q3, shooting from downtown to make a quick start to the period, before the lead was pushed to its biggest of the afternoon at 15pts thanks to a pair of free throws finished off by Josh Steel. But still Flyers managed to chip away at the deficit and left a 7pt game at the end of the 3rd.
Scorchers were looking good to hold out for the win in the final stanza, before Brandon Boggs came alive for Flyers to reduce the advantage down to 3pts with 1.28 left on the game clock. Mayindombe posted a 2 to make it a 1 point game and before Boggs came up clutch with the game winner with just 19secs left on the clock, ending Scorchers’ winning home run with a painful defeat.
Scorchers are on the road this Friday evening when they travel to the Newcastle Eagles for a 7.30pm tip-off, before returning to the host court this Friday for a 2pm tip-off vs the Manchester Giants.
Tickets for the game are on sale now.
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