Surrey Scorchers left the British Basketball All-Stars Championships emptied handed this afternoon after suffering two defeats at The O2 Arena.
Surrey Scorchers left the British Basketball All-Stars Championships emptied handed this afternoon after suffering two defeats at The O2 Arena.
Round 1: Scorchers 18-31 Riders
Surrey Scorchers faced the tough task of opening the tournament against the reigning BBL Champs the Leicester Riders, and came unstuck thanks to a well taken power play period.
Creon Raftopoulos’ side looked up for the tie early on, with Tony Hicks and Alex Owumi landing a pair of 3s to hand Surrey a 4-9 lead.
Riders followed up with a lucrative power play period to edge ahead by 3 at 14-11. Hicks charged in with a dunk to stop the rot for Scorchers, but a pointless power play followed and it was game over for Scorchers, who fell to an 18-31 defeat in the event’s opening fixture.
Round 2: Scorchers 20-33 Wolves
Surrey Scorchers crashed out of the All-Stars tournament after a disappointing 20-33 loss to the Worcester Wolves.
It took Scorchers time to get points on the board during the opening minutes, before Levi Noel found Darryl Palmer for a crowd-pleasing alley oop to close an early deficit to 6 points.
Wolves opened their power play with a 6 point shot, but Scorchers were matching their opponents with buckets at the opposite end, leaving hope for their own double points period.
Confusion with the new rules followed, as Coach Creon slammed the power play buzzer with 2.30 left on the game clock but it was cancelled by match officials as the period could not finish within the first 10 minutes of the game.
This left Scorchers with an uphill task ahead, and one that could not be completed, leaving them with an early exit from The O2 Arena.
Following the defeats Coach Creon said: “It was a great opportunity for the guys to play at such an iconic venue, but I think we really struggled with the format of the game today.
“I saw a lot of things that we need to work on and we have some time to do that ahead of the start of the season.”
Scorchers hit the road this Friday evening when they travel to face the Sheffield Sharks to get the 2017/18 British Basketball League season underway.
Catch the game live on www.livebasketball.tv from 7:30pm.
? | "It was a great opportunity but straight back onto the court on Monday"
Coach Creon is looking ahead after @AllStars_BB! pic.twitter.com/9dLHCYexAE
— Surrey Scorchers (@surreyscorchers) September 24, 2017
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