Bristol Academy Flyers Under 18’s Premier reach Semi Final of Sureshot Cup with a BANG!

The Bristol Academy Flyers Under 18 Premier defeated Solent Kestrels in the quarter final of the Sureshot Cup this Sunday 91-55. They will now face the Reading Rockets at home on 7^th February.

Although the Bristol side have not had the success they had hoped for in the league this year they have always done well in cup competitions, two years ago they reached the quarter final of the same competition.  Solent are a notoriously difficult side to beat who always bring a well coached, well drilled team to any encounter.

In the first quarter of this game it was evident that the Flyer’s were keen to play well and the level of intensity was shown from both sides with quite a low scoring quarter 14-15 in favour of the Kestrels. In the second quarter Flyers looked to attack the defence of the Kestrels a little more and this resulted in some trips to the free throw line. Just before his substitution Andy Hambleton made a scything drive to the basket that saw him go to the charity stripe.  Although they did not convert on as many as they would have liked it still gave them a slight lead. On top of this right at the end of the quarter Courtney John-Lewis hit a big shot to give the Flyers a ten point lead going into the break 43-33.

The second half saw Bristol extend their lead through some great play throughout the team. Japanese bullet Almasi Hanada sliced the Kestrels defence apart with some strong penetrating moves and this helped to free the rest of the team as well. Rob Loftman Flyer’s other point guard showed once again while he is highly rated with some great play at both ends of the floor. Alongside this backcourt duo there was a really strong front court presence from Mike Farage, Ire Omoyeni , Joel Osborneand Enrique Garcia. During the whole game they maintained defensive intensity and help to take the Solent team out of their offense with their aggressive approach. The final score of the contest 91-55 was a real reflection of the effort that the Flyers put into this game.

Coach Guy Coles was proud of his team’s performance saying “ All season I have been telling them that they can compete with anybody and today they showed it.  We now have a semi final at home against Reading Rockets which is not going to be easy , Reading have one of the best junior development programs in the country and are always amongst the best teams around. If we play like we did against Solent I think we can definitely compete and who knows what can happen in this one off encounter".