Surrey Scorchers may be riding an early season high, but head coach Creon Raftopoulos is adamant there is plenty of hard work to come if the franchise wants to make a long-awaited return to the post-season.

Scorchers players, staff and fans revelled in an exhilarating and nail-biting 84-83 home triumph against Manchester Giants and one which demonstrated they can show composure required down the stretch to dig out more wins.

“It’s important for us as a coaching team to learn about individuals and how they respond in pressure moments,” revealed Raftopoulos.

“The two wins we have had have come in similar circumstances and that gives us a lot of confidence.

“The team has a lot of experience going into games where there are going to be tight situations.

“But, the most important part is that we need to get better at is improving our fitness – it’s so important as a team.

“We have guys at different levels because of the time they came into the club.

“Now for us, it’s about getting the level up as a unit.

“Then we can concentrate more on defensive rotations and defensive help.”

He added, “Newcastle and Leicester set the example on defence and we can learn from what they do.

“When we get the fitness levels up, we will start to show it on defence and my style of play will then be evident.”

With Scorchers enjoying their start to the campaign, there was more a sense of relief for Leeds Force and Glasgow Rocks after they both got off the mark with their first successes of the 2015-16 season.

Leeds inflicted a 72-68 loss on Bristol Flyers after some nice work from British rising star Louis Sayers who came up big with 17 points and also a decisive three-pointer in the final minute by Dwayne Camille.

Rocks made the most of having home court advantage at the Emirates Arena to make it a doubly disappointing weekend for Giants, as Sterling Davis and his team collected an 81-71 win – with GB centre Kieron Achara and fellow Brit Will Hall combining for 36 points.

Elsewhere, a rotten 12-year barren run for London Lions continued in the north-east as they suffered their first defeat of the season, going down 92-84 to Newcastle Eagles.

Meanwhile Cheshire Phoenix are loving life on the road after Jordan Williams sunk a BBL season-high 36 points to help his new side take a third away win, courtesy of a hard fought 97-89 victory at Sheffield Sharks.