Sunday 15 February 2015 Durham Wildcats 58-66 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves got back to winning ways with an impressive 66-58 triumph at Durham Wildcats on Sunday, prompting their coach Paul James to applaud his players for successfully following the pre-game plan of closing down Durham’s outside threat, and capitalising on inside opportunities.

The match remained poised until half-time, after which Wolves held their hosts scoreless for nearly seven minutes, building a 53-40 cushion and, from then, keeping the Wildcats at bay.

Durham struggled to contain Robert Thurman who dominated the statistics with 18 points and 15 rebounds, having already accumulated a double-double by the interval. Wildcats’ usual sharpshooters were muted, making just four of their 16 three-point attempts.

James expressed his satisfaction at the afternoon’s work, saying: “It was a good win. We focused on our defence. We achieved all the things we talked about during the week, being aggressive on the boards and not giving them any time to line up their shots. Individually, Robert did very well – he had an opportunity to go to work on them and that’s just what he did.”

After the opening five minutes Worcester had raced to an 11-4 lead. Durham’s Croatian forward Fran Urli pulled back four points before rattling home a quick double of outside scores to reverse the lead to 13-14. His side still held a single-point advantage at 19-20 as the first quarter ended.

Wolves’ energetic young guard Disraeli Lufadeju pounced on a Durham turnover to sink a three-pointer. A double of baskets from Thurman and another for Lufadeju moved Wolves back in front at 30-25. Going into the locker rooms, the gap had closed to 39-28.

The initial two scores of the second half followed the same pattern: Thurman was first to grab the ball and put back a miss from Kalil Irving, while Irving then did likewise from a Thurman miss. At the other end there was a proverbial lid over the Wolves’ basket. The formerly-accurate Urli now misfired badly on several occasions, as did his colleague Ralph Bucci. There was even a dispute over the score that finally broke Durham’s drought when Joel Madourie’s rejected shot was signaled as good due to goaltending.

Thurman eventually took a seat in the last quarter to allow Dejan Radojevic to notch his first points. Wildcats continued to be harassed into turnovers or rushed shots, failing to put a dent into the Wolves’ lead.

Next-highest scorers behind Thurman were Alex Owumi and Paul Guede with 15 and 11 points respectively.

Wolves will be on the road again next Sunday, at Glasgow Rocks. Paul James stated that he will be looking for a similarly-efficient performance, remarking: “Today we executed our game-plan. Next week we will look to do the same again, focusing our resources where we need to.”

Home fans will need to wait until Friday 27 February before their team returns to the University of Worcester Arena, to face Sheffield Sharks.