London City Royals 77-64 Worcester Wolves

Saturday 26 October 2019

Worcester Wolves were unable to put a dent in the unbeaten record of London City Royals in their trip to the capital on Saturday.

London had little difficulty in parrying away Wolves’ inconsistent attacks as they rolled to a 77-64 success that keeps them at the top of the BBL Cup South group with a perfect half-dozen wins. Worcester sit a place behind them with four victories from seven outings.

A step-back jumper from Jordan Williams opened proceedings. Mark Hughes dunked the ball after a Raheem May-Thompson dish and May-Thompson then found himself unmarked for an easy layup and a 6-2 early Wolves lead.

The first score of the second quarter was a Maarten Bouwknecht triple, keeping his side 18-16 ahead. But former Wolves forward Orlan Jackman twice replied in kind to overturn the lead.

Seven-foot Lithuanian veteran Darjus Lavrinovic was a thorn in the side of Worcester defenders frequently bustling to the basket and extending the hosts’ advantage to 38-29 by half-time.

By the close of the third quarter the gap had narrowed to 51-44 as Williams and Hughes found their way to the hoop.

Until this juncture Wolves had struggled to make any impact from distance with only three successes out of 18 attempts. When Hughes finally got another one to fall as the last period began, Royals’ authority had lessened to 51-47.

But this was to be the height of Worcester’s resistance. Eight unanswered points steadied London’s ship. A series of turnovers and a return to wayward shooting disallowed a fightback for the visitors.

Royals’ American star Matt Scott danced to fifteen late points to confirm the outcome.

Hughes and Josephs led Wolves scoring with 16 and 10 points respectively.

Next Friday 1 November (7.30pm) sees Wolves return to the University of Worcester Arena to host M5 neighbours Bristol Flyers.