Durham Wildcats 86-100 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves hit a century of points for the second game in a row, when defeating Durham Wildcats on their own court on Sunday. The 100-86 victory allows Wolves to maintain a slender two-point cushion ahead of a glut of teams beneath them at the top of the British Basketball League.

Wildcats were unable to cope with the bustling inside play of Wolves’ centre Will Creekmore, who powered to a game high 32 points, as well as grabbing 15 rebounds. Even fouling the Worcester big man did little to slow his onslaught as he successfully converted an impressive 15 from 16 of the resultant free throws.

In Friday night’s thumping of the Manchester Giants, Zaire Taylor sank a wondrous eight three-pointers. Against Durham it was the turn of his backcourt partner Alex Owumi to have the hot hand, dropping six long-range bombs on his opponents.

After five minutes of the opening quarter Owumi had hit his second triple to edge Wolves ahead at 10-9. A moment later Wildcats’ Devin Ginty did the same, for his side to re-take the lead. In the space of thirty seconds towards the end of the quarter, Durham’s veteran guard Ralph Bucci fumbled on consecutive possessions, leaving Taylor and Owumi to capitalise, pushing the visitors to a 23-18 advantage.

University of Worcester student Daniel Belgrave floated home a shot from beyond the arc to begin the second period, sparking an 11-1 surge. Seven points from Durham’s Odiba Attah pulled matters back to 37-30, before he picked up his third foul and was forced to spend time on the bench.

As half-time approached, Creekmore became almost a fixture at the free throw line. Wildcats’ Norwegian centre Mattia Bradascio was the prime offender, committing three of the five offences that sent his opposite number to the charity stripe and boosted the Wolves’ advantage to 51-37.

By three minutes into the second half the lead had widened to 61-42 when Worcester forward Kalil Irving got his name on the scoreboard with a three-pointer. Paul Elderkin was given his first taste of action for the Wildcats and swiftly tallied six points, but could do little to hold back Wolves superiority as they entered the last ten minutes of the afternoon 79-56 to the good.

Eight more points for Elderkin was the only significant bright spot for the hosts during the final quarter. The continued dominance of Creekmore on the inside, and Owumi from the outside, helped Wolves to hold the Wildcats at bay and secure the road win.

Director of Basketball Paul James was gladdened to see his charges finalise a double of weekend victories, saying: “We did a good job, putting out a clinical controlled performance against a dangerous opponent.”

Referring to the individual performances of Creekmore and Owumi, James added: “Will was outstanding. We knew Durham were a relatively small team and had a game-plan to get the ball inside to him. They played him straight up, but just couldn’t do anything to stop him. Alex was also superb. He gave a captain’s performance, controlling matters and keeping us focussed.”

Taylor hit 16 points to follow on from his 37-point outing against Manchester.  Ginty led the way for Durham with 21 points, with Elderkin’s 14 points making him Wildcat’s next highest scorer.

Wolves are not currently scheduled to play again until a double of games to be held at the University of Worcester Arena during the Christmas period. Title-challengers the London Lions will visit on Friday 20 December, with Birmingham Knights making the short hop down to Worcester on Saturday 28 December.

In the meantime there will be an opportunity to re-live the excitement of Wolves’ 118-102 win over the Giants, with the game being shown on British Eurosport this Wednesday evening, repeated on Saturday afternoon.