Plymouth Raiders suffered their second loss of the season 72-92, against the Bristol Flyers at Bristol’s SGS College Arena.
Raiders were faced with a tough game on Friday evening, in their first of four South West Derby games against the Bristol Flyers. They fell short with a difficult defeat and were left struggling with a stop-start game.
During Raiders final game against the Flyers last season, Raiders won in overtime, and also took victory 3 times from the past 5 games against them.
Raiders started with Josh Wilcher, Rashad Hassan, Denzel Ubiaro, Kostas Jonuska and Theo Turner, while the Flyers lined up with Lewis Champion, Daniel Edozie, Marcus Delpeche, Fred Thomas and Raphell-Thomas Edwards.
Turner won the tip off for Raiders, but an early driving layup by Champion gave the hosts a premature lead.
After a slow start to the first quarter for Raiders, they entered the game with a dunk from Hassan levelling up the game.
Lay ups by Konuska and Jackson Hyland kept the game moving, however, counter shots by Champion and Thomas-Edwards ended the quarter with the Flyers up 12 points, 22-10.
A shot by Ubiaro kicked off the second quarter for Raiders followed up by a two-handed slam by Tyrell Johnson.
With only half of the second quarter remaining, Champion made another triple, putting the Flyers in the lead by 18.
Despite a 3 point pull up jump shot made by Ubiaro and superb free throws from Johnson and Wilcher, the second quarter ended 40-26 to the Flyers.
After the break, a layup by Thomas-Edwards put the Flyers even further ahead by 20 points and after another slow start to the third quarter for the Raiders, Johnson made a two-handed dunk in an effort to bring the gap closer.
With only seconds to go in the third quarter, an offensive foul from Champion sent Jonuska to the free throw line, where he made both shots. However, a buzzer beater half-court shot from Fred Thomas increased the Flyers lead up to 18 points, 67-49.
Hassan commenced the fourth quarter with a layup which was later followed by Thomas who made a pull up jump shot for the Flyers. This was followed by a dunk by Edozie which put the hosts 26 points ahead.
A 3-point ball by Tola Okiki was the last shot of the evening, putting the teams 20 points apart, with the game ending 92-72 to the Flyers.
Hassan and Edzoie levelled at 10 rebounds each, with Tyrell Johnson following behind with 6. Wilcher took the lead with the most assists, consecutively for the second game running.
The next game for Raiders will take place on Friday, October 18th, where they take on the Worcester Wolves away before returning home on the Sunday to play Wolves again in front of the home crowd at Plymouth Pavilions.
Raiders Scorers: Wilcher 15, Hassan 13, Ubiaro 13, Johnson 10, Hyland 7, Konuska 6, Okiki 3, Brandon 3, Palmer 2.