THE Swan Hill Flyers’ finals hopes have been dealt a crushing blow, with the men’s team suffering a 22-point defeat to rivals Mildura Heat on the road at the Hothouse on Saturday night.
The 93-71 loss means the team needs to win their final three matches and hope other games go their way to break their finals drought.
After a tight opening half Swan Hill held a one-point lead, but the Heat then blew the game open in the third quarter, outscoring the Flyers 27-15 before continuing their onslaught in the final term.
It was the second week in a row the Flyers struggled to contain Archer Hammond, the Mildura big man posting 20 points for the match, as Jack Bakewell led the Heat with 30 points.
He was bettered by Swan Hill’s Lachlan Somerville, who scored 31 points in another dominant display, and Matthew Gardner was the only other Flyers player to register double figures with 19 points.
The weekend didn’t get a lot better for Swan Hill’s women’s team, who suffered two defeats on the road to both Mildura and the Maryborough Blazers, by 13 and 26 points respectively.
Saturday night’s loss to the Heat was a much-improved effort from the Flyers, who managed to stay with Mildura in the second half after trailing by 12 points at half-time.
Shaylea Kerr continued her dominant first season for the Flyers senior women’s program, top scoring against the Heat with 21 points, before following it up with 14 points the next day against the Blazers.
Swan Hill’s Tamara Weiss was also among the Flyers’ better players on Saturday night, scoring 10 points, with Scarlet Grey shooting a game-high 19 points against Maryborough in her team’s 91-65 loss.
Both Swan Hill’s men’s and women’s teams will play the Maryborough Blazers on the road on Saturday night, with the men’s team to continue their road trip with a game against ladder leaders Castlemaine on Sunday.
