Glasgow Rocks 90-75 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves have confirmed their playoff opponents after rounding out their regular-season fixtures with a scrappy 90-75 defeat at Glasgow Rocks on Sunday.

A final 19-14 win-loss record fixes Wolves into seventh place in the British Basketball League and sets up a two-legged encounter this weekend against second-placed London Lions.

Though behind by double-digits for large parts of their game in Scotland, Worcester battled back to trail by just 71-77 with five minutes to play before eventually succumbing.

Despite the defeat coach Paul James applauded the application of his team, saying: “Rocks played very well today whereas that was probably our shakiest display in our last six or seven games.

“Nevertheless, I can’t fault the efforts of the players. There were too many turnovers, and we weren’t as intense as we’ve been lately on defence, but we fought hard to give ourselves a chance to grab a win.”

Wolves were hampered by the second-half withdrawals to injury of Alex Navajas and Dallin Bachynski, but James is hopeful both players will be ready to play their part in the playoffs, saying:

“Alex took a hit to the little finger on his left hand and Dallin has a bruised thumb which limited his game, but we’ll look to get things sorted this week.”

Trayvon Palmer and George Beamon combined for a dozen early points and Robert Gilchrist produced a baseline drive and slam to nudge Wolves 18-17 ahead with a minute left in the opening quarter.

But a prolonged spell of careless ball-handling was pounced upon by Rocks in a 14-3 tear over the next four minutes that left the visitors reeling.

By half-time the deficit stood at 32-44. Gilchrist toiled close to the basket and George Marshall came to life with a pair of three-pointers, but the arrears stayed steady at 58-69 entering the final period.

A Michael Ojo scoop put the Wolves man onto the scoresheet for the first time and got his side within a half-dozen points of their hosts, before turnovers and wayward shooting re-emerged to confirm the loss.

Beamon with 22 points and 13 rebounds and Gilchrist on 21 points and 11 rebounds dominated the Worcester statistics.

Worcester Wolves will play their first leg against Lions this Friday 04 May (7.30pm) at the University of Worcester Arena, with the return leg at London’s Copper Box Arena the following Sunday(4pm). Tickets for the home leg are available here.

James added: “We lost to Lions in our very first fixture of the season but after that we beat them twice at their place. We match up well against them. This is the most exciting tie of the playoffs.

“We’re hoping for yet another big Worcester crowd to get behind us in the home leg. The players definitely feed off the support. Our fans have been special all year and can now help us get an edge ahead of the second leg.”

Match report by Colin Taylor
Image credit Razorlight Imagery