Newcastle Eagles 81-73 Worcester Wolves

Friday 28 September 2012

Worcester Wolves recovered from a disastrous opening period to push reigning BBL Champions the Newcastle Eagles all the way before succumbing to an 81-73 defeat in the North East on Friday evening.

Newcastle scored the first seven points of the night before a long-range score from Carlos Fernandez and a couple of baskets from Arturas Masiulis levelled matters.

However, strong inside play from Eagles’ forwards Darius Defoe and Kareem Maddox helped the hosts to take command at 27-15 by the end of the first quarter.

A couple of three-pointers from Newcastle’s veteran guard Joe Chapman extended his side’s lead to 35-19 midway through the second period. Back-to-back triples from Wolves’ Stan Ocitti and Arnas Kazlauskas briefly narrowed the gap, but the visitors still trailed 43-31 at the interval.

A 7-2 run to begin the second half took the Eagles to their largest advantage of the evening at 50-33. Worcester suffered further difficulty when Masiulis picked up his fourth foul within the first two minutes, forcing him to the bench for much of the remainder of the game.   

A Defoe score with three minutes of the third period to go took the Eagles to 58-41 before a 9-2 Worcester run reduced the deficit to 60-50.

Another four points from Defoe took matters back out to 64-50 before an incredible 13-0 surge from the Wolves shocked their hosts. Consecutive triples from Ocitti, from American point guard Alex Owumi and from young British forward Stuart Thomson got their team back to within one point at 64-63.

A foul by Newcastle player-coach Fab Flournoy on Kazlauskas put the Lithuanian big man at the free-throw line where he sank both foul shots to put his side in front at 64-65 with just over five minutes of the contest remaining.

Veteran forward Charles Smith nailed a three-pointer to edge the Eagles back ahead at 72-69 and Wolves’ woes were further compounded when the battling Ocitti fouled out of the game with three minutes to go.

Four points from Fernandez held the deficit at 78-73 with a minute and a half left but the home side were able to see out the game as the Wolves saw a succession of long-range attempts go awry.

Ocitti top scored for the Wolves with 19 points and also pulled down 12 rebounds. Owumi was Wolves’ next-highest scorer with 16 points, followed by Thomson and Masiulis with 12 and 10 points respectively. Newcastle’s Darius Defoe led all scorers in the game with 26 points.

Wolves will now move straight into their meeting with the Manchester Giants, tonight at the University of Worcester (tip off 7pm).