Cheshire Phoenix could climb as high as third in the BBL table with a win over the Bristol Flyers on Sunday (February 13).

The Nix currently sit fourth in the table and could leapfrog the Sheffield Sharks if the Yorkshire side fail to beat the Glasgow Rocks.

Despite Cheshire’s league position, coach Ben Thomas will be aware that the rest of the league have between two and seven games in hand on his side.

Speaking to the Phoenix website he said “Sunday’s game against the Bristol Flyers is a must win for us and we will go into it with a lot of confidence”.

The Flyers have played just nine league games this season but already have six wins.

They could be level on points with Phoenix by tip-off if they beat the Plymouth City Patriots.

Last time the sides met the Flyers recorded a 76-68 victory in Bristol.

However, Phoenix have won eight of their last ten and are on a three-game win streak.

Cheshire’s American forward Levi Bradley was named in the BBL All-Star 5 this week for his performance in the 93-87 victory over the Rocks.

Bradley hit 28 points, making 12 of his 16 field goal attempts, and completed four rebounds, three steals and a block.

Top scorer Namon Wright continued his good form against Glasgow, racking up 20 points, ten rebounds and seven assists.

Cheshire will be wary of Flyers danger man Malcom Delpeche who scored 26 points against them in Bristol.

Delpeche is averaging 17.4 points per game this season, the eighth best in the league.

His battle with Cheshire’s Michael Ochereobia will be key.

Ochereobia and Delpeche rank 2nd and 3rd for offensive rebounds per game in the division, averaging 4.1 and 4.0 respectively.

Delpeche will rely on Flyers guard Marcus Evans for service.

Evans is statistically the seventh best assister in the league with 6.3 per game. He made the BBL All-Star 5 for a 28-point performance against the Derby Trailblazers last Friday.

(Feature image credit to MarkBuckawicki under creative commons 1.0.)

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