Worcester Wolves 86-88 London Lions – Wolves win on aggregate 178-166

Worcester Wolves did just enough in the second leg of their BBL quarter-final playoff against London Lions to ensure that they made it through to the last four of the competition. They will now meet the team that they defeated at the semi-final stage of the BBL Trophy, Sheffield Sharks.

Already carrying over a comfortable 14-point first-leg advantage into Sunday’s match at the University of Worcester Arena, it initially looked as if Wolves could do nothing but make the aggregate margin of victory yet larger. By half-time the hosts held a 24-point overall lead, though, to their credit, the Lions refused to lay down, eventually coming up with an unlikely victory on the night, albeit by only a couple of points and therefore nowhere near the total needed for them to progress.

Just as in Friday’s match in London, it was Stefan Djukic who dominated the early scoring. In the opening minute he sank the first of two free throws and, though missing his second attempt, harassed a London defender into tipping the ball out of bounds. When the ball was fed back into play, Djukic was quickly on the spot to claim a basket. On Wolves’ next possession he took a bullet pass from club captain Alex Owumi, dunking the ball home, putting his side 10-0 up and raising his personal tally to eight points.

It took a full five minutes before Lions could claim a score from the field, and matters worsened as they went on to trail 22-6 approaching the last two minutes of the first quarter. From here the visitors finally drew a line in the sand, producing a 21-3 burst in a four minute spell straddling the first and second periods. The star of that spell was London forward Joseph Ikhinmwin. As well as three points before the break, he was able to notch a trio of successive baskets to begin the second quarter and drag his side back to 25-25, before his colleague Adrien Sturt then gave Lions their first lead of the afternoon.

While London coach Vince Macaulay must have been delighted to see his team nudge ahead, he was aware that their surge had come at a cost, namely foul trouble. By half-time he was mired in a continual rotation of his charges, with three players already standing on three of their permitted five fouls and another, Michael Martin, teetering on the edge of expulsion with four fouls.

Will Creekmore was the main beneficiary of trips to the free throw line, making five of eight attempts to aid Worcester to regain a 46-38 interval advantage. Lions were still held at arm’s length towards the end of the third quarter, at 60-51, before another late burst of action, featuring five points apiece for Sturt and for point guard Rod Brown, once more levelled the scores at 65-65.

A close to the hoop conversion from Sturt, and one from distance, moved the scoreboard to 67-70. A deuce of scores from Brown pushed the afternoon out to 71-76. However the number of infractions committed by London had eventually become too many, with Martin and his fellow veteran Julius Joseph the first of three players forced to retire to the bench. When Zaire Taylor drained the last of twelve Wolves’ final quarter free throw attempts, the leg was again tied at 86-86, with seconds of the contest remaining. After London scored and Wolves then missed on their last possession, the game clock was allowed to peter out.

Wolves’ coach Paul James was pleased to make progress in the playoffs, but unhappy not to win on the day, saying: “Though I’m obviously delighted that we have made it through to the semis, I’m disappointed that we lost this leg. When you have such a big first-leg lead as we did, it can sometimes cause focus to wander. We had chances to blow the game wide open, but didn’t capitalise. The scoreboard was lit up like a Christmas tree with all the fouls, but we still managed to miss eighteen free throws on the day.”

Looking ahead to next week’s two-legged tie against Sheffield, James added: “It will be a hell of a battle. We’ll need to play a lot better than we did against London. We’ll regroup in practice, and look to come out firing.”

Creekmore led the scoring with 24 points, as well as hauling down a mammoth 23 rebounds. Owumi and Djukic were next-highest scorers with 18 and 17 points respectively. Ikhinmwin led the way for London with 19 points.

The away leg of the BBL playoff semi-final versus Sheffield will take place this Friday (tip off 7.30pm), with Sharks visiting the University of Worcester Arena for the return leg on the following Sunday, 4 May (tip off 6.30pm). The other semi-finalists who will duel for a place in the showpiece final at Wembley Arena on Sunday 11 May are Newcastle Eagles and Leicester Riders.