The Gladiators will travel back to Glasgow with a W in their pockets as they left the Bristol Flyers stunned with a dominant second half performance to claim a 22-point win.

 

It was the Gladiators who opened the scoring through Darian Adams as he charged up the court from the tip and landed a mid-range two-pointer which opened the floodgates for a high scoring first quarter.

 

The teams went into the first intermission level at 19-19 after an impressive showing from Bristol’s #22 Malcolm Delpeche and #17 VJ King.

 

#1 David Sloan stood out for the Gladiators in the first as he showed his skill and determination to drive the team to the basket consistently as well as helping to control the pace of the game.

 

After the second quarter the match was just as tense as the game couldn’t escape it’s back-and-forth format.

 

The Glads had a one-point lead by half time at 39-38 after their impressive team plays led them to taking the lead over the hosts.

 

Jeremiah Bailey led the points in the game after having an impressively successful opening half.

 

The third quarter is where the Gladiators large advantage started to develop as they picked up 33 points in the quarter while only conceding 13, giving them a 72-51 lead with one quarter remaining.

 

David Sloan’s game leading points tally was massively due to his dominant performance in the third as he led his side into taking full control of the tie.

 

The visitors didn’t take their foot off the gas in the fourth quarter either as they continued to expand on their already impressive advantage.

 

Bristol’s consistent pressure on the Gladiators’ defence gave them a look at possibly shutting down their 21-point deficit, especially with the crowd- electrifying slam dunks from Malcolm Delpeche.

 

Despite the Flyers’ best efforts, there was just no stopping this Gladiators side as they continued to dominate the scoring and maintained their advantage, shutting out the game with a 93-71 score-line.

 

David Sloan was the highest scoring player in the game with 27 points as he and Jeremiah Bailey shared the honours of stat-leaders in the game with Bailey who claimed the most assists (six) and rebounds (14).

 

By Sam Scouller

Twitter: @sam_scouller