The Men’s Swan Hill Flyers 2021-22 campaign has got off to a successful start with a 49-point thrashing of the Kyneton Tigers at the weekend.
The Flyers started the match full of running with a 23-point first quarter, before taking complete control in the second to lead 43 points to 20 at the main break.
The visitors showed no signs of letting up in the second half, scoring a dominant 42 point to 16 run after half time and putting the rest of the competition on notice one game into the season.
Henry Thompson led the scoring for the Flyers, putting up 20 points for the evening, while Steven Bowden with 16 points and Lachie Gardner with 12 were the only other players to reach double figures.
For Kyneton, Ethan Clark was the only one to really trouble the scorers, with 13 points, as the Tigers continually ran into trouble with the refs, with 29 fouls to the Flyers 22.
The night didn’t go completely to plan for Swan Hill however, as the Lady Flyers earlier in the evening suffered a heart breaking one-point loss to the Kyneton Lady Tigers.
In a game that ebbed and flowed all night, neither side was able to break away from the other at any point of the match.
Kyneton would take a one-point lead into the quarter time huddle – and would maintain that advantage through to the main break, with the Lady Tigers leading 40 points to 39 at half time.
With the game in the balance, the Lady Flyers came out in the third period and started to hit the scoreboard, scoring 17 points to 14 and taking a two-point buffer into the final change.
However, they were unable to maintain their advantage in the last, as the Lady Tigers outscored Swan Hill by three points to record an agonising 69 to 68 point win.
Youngster Arlee Bennett was the leading point scorer for the Lady Flyers with 19 points, while Demi Wall with 15 points, including two three-pointers, and Laura Anderson with 11 were also major contributors on the night.
In what is set to be a huge weekend of basketball, the Flyers will play a double header weekend at home, with their first home game of the season against the Echuca Pirates to be played on Saturday night.
Both the Men’s and Women’s teams will then back up less than twenty four hours later, when they will host the Bendigo Braves at the Swan Hill Basketball Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
