London Lions Dominate Bristol Flyers 95-60 In Top of The Table Clash. Sam Dekker Leads Lions Charge With 25-Point, 3-Rebound And 5-Assist Effort. Vojtech Hruban Records 17 Points And 8 Rebounds Off the Bench En Route To Routing the Bristolians.
The London Lions exacted revenge on the Bristol Flyers, 95-60, 41 days after losing the first game of their four-game regular season series against the Bristolians.
Sam Dekker led the lopsided victory with 25 points, 3 rebounds and 5 assists. The 3-level scorer shot efficiently from the floor, connecting on 10 of 13 total attempts and 4 of 4 shots from the free-throw line (including two heavily contested AND 1 plays).
Canadian international Aaron Best returned to the starting line-up and contributed 14 points and 2 assists. The experienced guard shot 62% from the field, 75% from the charity stripe, and downed a momentum-shifting triple in the third quarter to extend the Lions' lead to 14 points.
Catch-and-shoot wizard Tomislav “Zuba” Zubcic shot 75% from the hardwood and sunk both of his 3-point attempts en route to 11 points. The multi-dimensional player also grabbed 7 rebounds and dished out 3 assists to help take down the Flyers.
The Lion’s bench torched the Flyers' bench 34-10. Vojtech Hruban led the bench mob with a 17-point, 8-rebound effort to go with 1 assist. Hruban was also lights-out from the free-throw line knocking down all five of his attempts.
The Lions’ reinvigorated defensive identity blitzed the Bristolian offence, holding them to a season-low 5 points in the first quarter. The South-West England-based squad had to wait until the last two minutes and thirty seconds of the period to see their first (and only) shot of the quarter go through the hoop. By this time, they had missed 17 shots and conceded 17 points.
Free throws helped the Flyers improve their score to 5 points, but they were they weren’t able to stop the Londoner’s might, as the Lions finished the period with 23 points.
Free throws helped the Flyers improve their score to 5 points, but they were they weren’t able to stop the Londoner’s might, as the Lions finished the period with 23 points.
The second quarter saw the Flyers improve their score by 22 points through the help of Jelani Watson-Gayle, Thomas Bell, Vincent King captain Mike Miller, and Flyers mainstay Malcolm Delpeche. However, the Bristolian defence couldn’t stop the Lions' 20-point onslaught, inflicted on them by Best, Hruban, Dekker, Josh Ward-Hibbert and Kosta Koufos.
The second half of the game saw the Bristol defence concede 52 points, nine more than they suffered in the first half. The Lions’ third-quarter, 27-point arsenal was supported by long-range shots from Dekker, Best and “Zuba” and paint domination from the likes of Kostas Koufos, Best, Dekker and GB national player Josh Sharma.
London stepped into the fourth quarter leading by 30 points and refused to let up. The period's first six minutes was “The Ward-Hibbert and Hruban Show.” Ward-Hibbert started the barrage with a long-range shot that was deemed a 2-pointer but was initially thought of as a triple.
This was followed by three back-to-back buckets from Hruban, two of which were 3-pointers. JWH followed this up with a driving layup that helped put the Lions up by 34 points.
The entire Lions Nation in attendance celebrated and cheered every bucket the Lions made in the fourth quarter, as they did throughout the game. However, none was more celebrated than the 3-pointer made by rookie forward Zamoku Weluche with 03:41 left on the clock. The quarter-defining bucket put the Londoners up by 35 points and was the second-to-last score made in open play by the Lions.
