BBL Play-offs, Quarter-Final, Second Leg
Bristol Flyers 94-80 Manchester Giants (26-24, 49-40, 70-60)
(Flyers – Miller 33, Evans 20, Simmons 13; Giants – McKnight 30, Artison 14, Armstrong 11)
(Flyers win 173-171 on aggregate)
Bristol Flyers sensationally overturned a double-digit deficit to reach the BBL Play-off semi-finals, beating Manchester Giants 94-80 following a pulsating final six seconds on the night and coming through 173-171 on aggregate in an absolute post-season classic.
It is the second time that Flyers have made the Play-off semi-finals since joining the BBL, having also comeback from such a deficit in a home tie in 2018.
The hosts showed their intent early on, rattling off 11 straight points early in the second stanza as Mike Miller scored consecutively to cut the aggregate lead to one point at 37-26, before it was tied soon after on a Marcus Evans ‘and-one’ and they took a first lead on an emphatic Malcolm Delpeche dunk.
But Giants hit an 11-0 run of their own after half time and with Martaveous McKnight scoring 30 points on the night they looked to have steadied the ship, despite Flyers scoring the last seven points of the third and levelling the aggregate tie once more when Zach Simmons scored to open the fourth.
Flyers progressed with one of the all-time great finishes to a BBL game, scoring the final seven points inside the last two minutes as a Miller three-pointer ignited it before his turnaround jump shot out of a timeout put them up on aggregate with six seconds to play. That wasn’t the last of the huge plays, as Delpeche produced a huge block on Tyrik Armstrong on the buzzer, preventing overtime and sending a capacity crowd into raptures.
Miller had a career night, pouring in 33 points on 10-16 (62%) inside and 4-5 (80%) from three-point range, with five rebounds, four steals and three assists.