Sunday 07 December 2014 Plymouth Raiders 88-95 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves keep a firm hold on second place in the British Basketball League after a gritty 95-88 victory at Plymouth Raiders on Sunday.

At the close of the first quarter Wolves had established an eight-point lead. A few minutes later the match was tied. Thereafter, the lead would swing one way and the other until the final five minutes of the afternoon when Plymouth were unable to reply to a deuce of three-point baskets from one of their former players, small forward Jamal Williams.

A week ago Worcester were embroiled in a similarly tight contest against Glasgow Rocks, but ultimately lost out through being unable to capitalise on several opportunities to pull clear. Wolves’ coach Paul James was particularly happy to see a different reaction from his players this time round, saying: “Towards the end today we were in a similar position to where we were last Sunday at Glasgow. We had a time out and referred back to last week. Everyone was determined not to see the same thing happen. Jamal then hit one of his trademark threes off the break, we sat down defensively, kept our heads and closed the game out.”

Williams was in the thick of the action from the opening tip-off, stealing the ball from Great Britain International Nick George and setting up a score for Robert Thurman. On the next possession he was the first man to grab hold of a Raiders’ miss, again passing the ball into Thurman’s hands for a powerful slam.

Entering the second period the visitors led 24-16. However a trio of long-range successes for Plymouth’s guards Brent Benson and Josh Wilcher dragged their team back into contention. A Benson basket at the close of the first half kept matters close at 45-43.

Benson repeated his late-scoring feat at the end of the third quarter to reverse the advantage in favour of the hosts at 67-69. It was 75-75 before Williams floated home a triple, and followed this by once more connecting with Thurman for a dunk. Swarming defence caused a series of Raiders’ misses, while at the other end of the court the Wolves showed no such inaccuracy.

After a performance labelled by Paul James as ‘aggressive’, Thurman totalled highly-impressive statistics of 25 points and 14 rebounds. Chavis Holmes also put forward impactful numbers, with 21 points and eight assists. The final stat-line for the irrepressible Williams read 15 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

The next outing for the Wolves will take place this Friday at the University of Worcester Arena versus Manchester Giants. James is confident, but wary, about the next opponents, saying: “We’re 1-1 against them. They beat us early in the season and we got them back when they came to our place. We’ll need to be on our guard, but if we apply ourselves again like we did today then we’ll be fine.”