Newcastle Eagles 71-80 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves showed that they fully deserve their place at the top of the British Basketball League by defeating one of their closest challengers on Friday. A 71-80 win at the home of Esh Group Eagles Newcastle continues Wolves’ blistering start to the season, with a perfect seven wins from seven games record.

For most of the evening, neither side was able to break decisively clear of the other. However, in the last quarter a double of three-pointers from Worcester’s exciting guard pairing of Alex Owumi and Zaire Taylor finally established an advantage for the visitors that they would not relinquish.

Wolves’ Jamal Williams was first man on the scoreboard, with a reply from Great Britain International Darius Defoe following quickly. Six more points from Defoe put his side in front at 14-10, but five points from Taylor and Owumi had matters tied at 15-15 by halfway through the opening period.

Towards the close of the period, forward Daniel Belgrave checked into the line-up and coolly sank a long-range effort with his first touch of the ball, helping his team to a 22-29 lead.

At seven minutes of the first half remaining, another Williams basket was the signal for Eagles’ coach Fab Flournoy to call for a time out, with his side trailing 27-34. An ensuing 17-6 rally from his troops had turned the tables by the half-time interval, with the hosts now in charge at 44-40.

Defoe once more came out of the locker rooms in a feisty mood, rattling off a swift six points to give Newcastle their biggest lead of the night at 50-42, after three minutes of the second half had elapsed.

A burst of action from Taylor and from centre Will Creekmore were the catalysts for Wolves to come back into the contest. Creekmore bustled through Newcastle defenders to tip in his own missed shot and, a moment later, grabbed another offensive rebound and a put-back of an Owumi missed three-point attempt. Meanwhile Taylor hit a brace of outside scores, helping Wolves to edge back in front at 58-59 entering the final quarter of the match.

Three points from Eagles’ veteran forward Charles Smith tipped the advantage back to the home side, before a dunk from recent signing Andreas Schreiber levelled the scores at 63-63.

Another triple from Taylor had Flournoy once more requesting a break in the action at 63-66 with six minutes to play. From the re-start a clumsy fumble of the ball by Smith was pounced upon by the Wolves. Taylor laid on a pass for Owumi to float home a triple and Owumi then made both free throws awarded after a foul by Eagles guard Paul Gause.

Trailing 63-72 with four minutes remaining, a final Flournoy time out was unable to re-ignite his team. A series of hurried offences and the continued strong inside presence of Creekmore and Schreiber was enough to repel the Eagles attack and allow Wolves to seal the victory.

Beaming Worcester coach Paul James gave his thoughts on the triumph, saying: “Newcastle is never an easy place to come to, but we dug deep. We were behind the pace in the first half, but in the second half we controlled the boards, got stops when we needed to and then executed our offences. It was an outstanding team performance.”

Zaire Taylor led the Wolves scoring with 25 points, including a quartet of three-pointers. Owumi just missed out on a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds, but Creekmore was able to achieve the feat by tallying 16 points and pulling down a huge 17 rebounds. Scott Martin top-scored for Newcastle with 17 points, closely followed by Smith and Defoe with 15 and 14 points respectively.

Wolves’ supporters will be able to welcome home their conquering heroes this Friday evening, when the Plymouth University Raiders visit the University of Worcester (tip off 7.30pm). The next day the Wolves will travel to their Midlands rivals, the Leicester Riders, for a BBL Cup quarter-final showdown.