THE Swan Hill Flyers men’s team crashed back down to earth at the weekend in a 59-95 loss to the Melton Thoroughbreds.
Excitement was high heading into the top-of-the-table clash, but the class between the two sides was evident as the Thoroughbreds flexed their muscles from start to finish.
The Thoroughbreds came out firing to take a 10-26 lead at quarter time, before putting the game out of reach by halftime with a 22-49 lead.
Lachie Martin tried to keep the Flyers in touch in the first half, nailing three-pointers for fun, but it was too little to make a dent in the margin thanks to the potent Thoroughbred offence.
A second-half fadeout didn’t occur from the Thoroughbreds, even though the effort from the Flyers dramatically improved.
Melton again won the quarter in the third term by eight points.
They took their foot off the gas in an even final quarter, which allowed the Flyers to get the margin back to a respectable 36 points by the final siren.
Three Flyers, including Martin (11), posted double-figure points, with Matthew Gardner top-scoring with 18 and Hugh Broad with 14.
New recruit Lachlan Somerville was good again, with Gardner and Samuel Bull also putting in strong showings.
The Flyers have plenty of time to lick their wounds with byes in the next two weeks before travelling to Castlemaine later in the month.
Sadly, the story wasn’t much better for the lady Flyers, who are now winless after two games thanks to their 14-point loss to the Thoroughbreds.
A lapse in concentration in the first quarter proved costly, with the Flyers able to take it up with the Thoroughbreds for the remainder of the contest but could never pull back the 13-point margin they had conceded by quarter time.
The Flyers slowly pulled the margin back to 10-points by the final interval, but the Thoroughbreds won the last quarter by four points to condemn the Flyers to a 0-2 start to the 2022 campaign.
Zoe Morris (14) and captain Tess Denham (12) again led the way for the Flyers with points.
The ladies will also have a while to ponder this defeat, with the next three rounds being byes before finally restarting their season against Bacchus Marsh in early November.
