Sunday 20 January 2013 – Durham Wildcats vs Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves will follow up Friday’s home game against London Lions with a trip to Durham Wildcats on Sunday afternoon (tip off 4pm). The teams met on the opening weekend of the season and the Wolves were shocked on their own court as Wildcats ran out 82-76 winners.

The Wolves have recovered from that loss, and head into the weekend in sixth spot in the BBL Championship with a 9-8 record, while Wildcats are sitting in 11th spot with five wins from 17 games but are still in touching distance of the play-offs.

Wildcats’ coach Dave Elderkin is looking forward to Sunday’s game: “We started the BBL season with a hard-fought road win at Worcester, earned with a fourth quarter spell of defence and three-point shooting. Since that first encounter we’ve made several changes to the way we play and Worcester have added Sherrad Prezzie-Blue and Kai Williams. Arturas Masiulis has adapted to the BBL style of play and with Arnas Kazlauskas and Stanley Ocitti alongside, that’s a forward line with size. I liked what I saw of Kai Williams at the end of last season when he was in a Cheshire uniform, Alex Owumi was their best player when we met last September and Carlos Fernandez and Kalil Irving give them depth.”

Wolves’ coach Paul James is impressed with the improvement Wildcats have shown since last season’s debut campaign in the BBL: “The Wildcats have done a pretty good job this season in improving on what they achieved in the last campaign. We played them the very first game of the season and we ended up on the wrong side of where we wanted to be. They play hard for the whole game and have some decent scoring threats. Ralph Bucci and Paul Elderkin have been solid and consistent for them.”

James isn’t too concerned about the opening day loss against Wildcats: “It was the first game of the season so it was a pretty scrappy affair and I would like to think that we are a better team today.”