Sunday 20 October 2013 – Birmingham Knights vs Worcester Wolves

On Sunday afternoon (tip off 3pm) Worcester Wolves will look to maintain their thundering start to the new season when travelling to North Solihull Sports Centre, home of the Birmingham Knights.

Coach Paul James is calling for more of his Worcester Wolves to step up and contribute on Sunday, so he can cut the heavy minutes played by his ‘big three’.

Zaire Taylor (39.3 minutes-per-game), Will Creekmore (39) and Alex Owumi (37.5) have barely touched the bench as the Wolves have opened at 4-0, coming through two tough overtime victories last weekend.

But as the Wolves hunt a first ever 5-0 BBL Championship start, James knows such stress on his stars is unsustainable and wants a more balanced effort moving forward, saying: “I have played the players mentioned more minutes than I would like, but it is what it is at the moment.

“It is not realistic to play them the minutes they have had to for the whole season, it’s just not possible. I will be looking for more production from other players on the team and hope that they will be able to contribute more time in the weeks to come.
“The important thing is that even though we have not been anywhere near where I would like us to be as a team collectively, we have managed to keep winning games.”

Such success has eluded winless Birmingham to this point but brave displays against some of the BBL’s top teams suggest strides are being made – something not lost on James.

“Birmingham have shown that they are going to be more and more competitive as the season continues,” he added. “Coach Douglas is a good coach and will have his team more than prepared for the game on Sunday.”

Meanwhile Knights’ guard Brent Benson gave his thoughts on his team’s narrow loss last week at home to Sheffield Sharks, saying: “We had a great atmosphere, there was a packed house and the crowd really got into it and enjoyed it. It was back and forth, we just let it slip at the end and we can learn from it. I think we can take a lot from it as Sheffield are one of the top teams.”