Worcester Wolves 84-87 Plymouth Raiders

Worcester Wolves’ faltering form continued as they spurned chances to finish off a reeling opponent when dropping to an 84-87 home defeat against Plymouth Raiders on Friday.
Wolves sped to an early double-digit lead, saw Raiders drag themselves back level by half-time, again rebuilt a sizeable advantage, only to allow their visitors once more to revive and so snatch the win.

Maurice Walker delivered his by now traditional double-double output with 25 points and eleven rebounds, but Jermel Kennedy, with 21 points, was the only other significant home scorer.
Wolves raced out of the blocks to entertain a large University of Worcester Arena crowd. A Kennedy scoop shot got the scoreboard ticking. Danny Huffor and Walker both connected twice, Kennedy repeatedly danced past defenders and Plymouth were left baying for an urgent time out, trailing 23-10.

The torment continued after the stoppage. Kennedy tumbled the ball out of the hands of Plymouth’s Cory Dixon and jammed it home. Andrew Bachman introduced himself to the action with an immediate triple to maximise the advantage at 28-11 with two minutes left in the first quarter.

But Raiders refused to fold. As Worcester shots went astray, Raiders’ hit the target. Across-the-board scoring gradually eroded Wolves’ lead. A three-pointer from their captain Daryl Corletto finally edged them ahead at 40-41 as half-time approached.

Walker and Kennedy set up shop next to the Plymouth basket after the break. Walker pushed his way to ten third-period points while Kennedy contributed eight. While this helped stack up a 73-60 lead it was worrying that there was scarce scoring punch from elsewhere.

By three minutes remaining in the match just six points had been added to Wolves’ side of the scoreboard. Meanwhile Plymouth had ground their way to fifteen further points.

With a minute and a half left, another Corletto triple moved his side in front at 79-80. A Wolves failure to take a shot in the maximum 24-seconds helped the deficit to widen to 81-85. Trevor Setty fired home a desperation long-range success and a foul was committed to halt the game-clock at sixteen seconds left and Wolves behind at 84-87.

In a wild ending, Marek Klassen advanced the ball but could find no-one open, throwing a frantic pass that Walker was left to heave well short of the basket.

Coach Paul James confirmed that the final play was not what was required, saying: “Unfortunately it just wasn’t a smart play at the end. We needed a three-pointer to take us into overtime, but had guys playing inside the three-point line. Maurice seemed to be the only person moving on the perimeter at that moment and we just couldn’t get a good shot off.”

“Having said that, it wasn’t all about the ending. We had chances to close the game out earlier. Plymouth are a good team with plenty of scorers – we worked hard to put ourselves in a winning position but then allowed them to come back at us.”

Wolves return to the University of Worcester Arena next Friday, 6 January,to host Sheffield Sharks in the first round of the BBL Trophy.

“We are going to have to pick ourselves up and work on finishing teams off. We played some good defence at times today and got good leads. But you have to keep doing the things that got you in front or it just becomes a lottery by the end,” added James.