London City Royals 91-78 Worcester Wolves

April 6th 2019

Worcester Wolves’ exhausting quadruple-overtime marathon the night before took its toll on their performance as they dropped to a 91-78 defeat at London City Royals on Saturday.

By half-time they had already fallen into sizeable 34-55 arrears, but nevertheless Wolves hauled themselves off the floor to give respectability to the final score-line.

There was a contrasting start to the evening with London’s crafty guard Ed Lucas dancing forwards from the outside for his side’s opening eight points while Worcester big man Lester Prosper toiled inside for all but a couple of the visitor’s output.

Wolves’ Spanish combo of Miki Servera and Alex Navajas both sank three-pointers to limit Royal’s lead to 26-22 entering the second quarter.

It would take a further six minutes for Worcester to add to their score from the field as they watched their opponents move off into the distance.

Five minutes into the second half stalwart forward Deshawn Freeman was whistled for his fourth foul after he drove into his defender. Immediately disputing the referee’s call gave him a permanent seat on the bench.

Now looking up at a huge 42-66 deficit a Wolves’ surrender might have been expected. But Jordan Whelan, revelling in increased court-time, sprung into the limelight with ten third-quarter points.

Although a victory was out of sight, players were able to practice their sharpshooting in the final period. Servera and Darell Combs both connected from afar and Navajas particularly impressed in draining a trio of triples in a two-minute spell.

Prosper and Whelan led the scoring with 14 points apiece, closely followed by Combs and Navajas with 13 and 12 points respectively.

Wolves will next be in action on Sunday 14 April (3pm) when they visit Plymouth Raiders, seeking their third win from three meetings with their Devon opponents this season. The following week, on Friday 19 April, Wolves host M5 neighbours Bristol Flyers at the University of Worcester Arena.