Plymouth Raiders 94-81 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves battled hard to stay close to Plymouth Raiders last night, before a late breakdown allowed their hosts to take charge and a 94-81 victory.

New signing Maurice Walker followed up his double-double statistics from Friday’s debut against Manchester Giants with another impressive return of 26 points and 12 rebounds, supported inside by Jermel Kennedy with 18 points.

A competitive first quarter featured Walker immediately making his presence felt close to the hoop with a quartet of scores. Worryingly however, Plymouth were already finding their range with a double of three-pointers for both Daryl Corletto and Anton Grady included in a 20-17 lead.

Being fouled in the act of scoring allowed Walker to level matters and Wolves then went in front with a Kennedy bucket. A steal and subsequent dunk from Kennedy extended the advantage to 24-20.

Worcester stayed ahead until a couple of minutes after half-time, before Raiders’ guard Rhys Carter slotted home consecutive triples When Kennedy was again on hand to snatch the ball from Carter and convert, it was 54-51 in favour of the visitors and Plymouth were calling for a steadying time out.

Another trio of Raiders threes helped them take the upper hand at 66-61 entering the final quarter. Walker powered to the basket on successive plays, ignoring fouls from Grady, grabbing six quick points and closing the deficit to just 69-70 at seven minutes remaining
Plymouth centre Cory Dixon picked up his fifth disqualifying foul when attempting to deter a Walker attack and the infraction was compounded with a bench technical. At 72-75 with five minutes to go, the contest was still on.

But over the next thirty seconds Raiders found enough space to slot home a brace of three-pointers. A series of demoralising fumbles swiftly followed and suddenly Wolves were in a double-figure hole too deep to climb out of.

Coach Paul James summarised the loss, saying: “We played well until late on when a couple of minutes’ lack of concentration left us too big a deficit to chase and cost us the game.”

Wolves travel to Leeds Force this Friday, before returning to the University of Worcester Arena on Friday 2 December to greet Bristol Flyers (7.30).
“We certainly need to work more on holding our composure. I guess when you are struggling as we are, you can forget how to win,” admitted James.