BBL Cup: Holders Leicester Riders and Bristol Flyers progress
Last Updated: 12/10/14 10:55am
Holders Leicester Riders cruised past Surrey United in the BBL Cup on Saturday, while Bristol Flyers narrowly edged out Plymouth University Raiders.
A stellar 28-point performance by Tyler Bernardini was the highlight of the Riders 98-80 win over Surrey.
Rashad Hassan also notched a 20-point haul in what proved to be a long night for the visitors, who had been right in the contest during the second quarter.
Trailing by four points, successive triples by Trevor Setty and Elvisi Dusha put United in front, but it also sparked Riders into their best spell of the game.
Stung by falling behind, Bernardini three-pointers either side of a Hassan score put the momentum back with Riders, who outscored the visitors with an 18-7 run to into the box-seat at the break.
They continued where the left off in the second half and Surrey were left treading water in the last quarter when they fell 77-61 behind.
A dunk by Kramer Knutson gave them some feint hope of a revival, but Jamell Anderson scored a spectacular alley-oop to re-assert Riders’ dominance and put them into the next round – much to the delight of another big home crowd.
There was drama in Bristol as the first overtime game of the 2014-15 season was delivered by the hometown Flyers and visiting Raiders.
It actually took two extra periods before a winner was determined, with the Flyers eventually winning 93-92 in an epic duel to pick up their second south-west derby win of the season - having beaten their rivals in the BBL Championship on the opening night of the season.
The hosts led 40-31 at the break but Plymouth then threatened to turn the game on its head when Brent Benson put them 63-59 ahead early in the fourth.
Both sides then had a chance to win a roller-coaster affair before the Flyers eventually came out on top, with a one-handed dunk by Mathias Seilund and couple of baskets by Doug Herring finally getting the hosts over the line.