Worcester Wolves 86-85 Surrey Scorchers

Saturday 14 November 2020

Worcester Wolves got off to a winning start in their defence of the British Basketball League Cup after an 86-85 thriller against Surrey Scorchers at the University of Worcester Arena on Saturday.

Wolves were 29-18 ahead by the end of the first quarter but had to endure Surrey whittling away the arrears to tie the match at 85-85 with just ten seconds to play.

Worcester captain Maarten Bouwknecht took over possession before being fouled with a couple of seconds remaining. The Dutch guard sank the first of the resultant pair of free throws, with Scorchers left with insufficient time to reply after grabbing the second missed shot.

“Maarten deliberately missed the second shot,” explained Wolves’ coach Matt Newby. “It meant Surrey couldn’t call a timeout and couldn’t advance the ball with just two seconds left.

“Today was almost a game of two halves. Surrey came right back at us in the second half and it made for a nervous finish.”

It was Bouwknecht who set up the night’s opening score, deftly inbounding the ball for Josh McSwiggan to lay in as Surrey defenders stood frozen at their own end-line.

McSwiggan could do little wrong as he floated home a trio of three-pointers to propel Wolves to an 18-11 advantage six minutes into the evening.

Tola Okiki came off the bench to pass off to Daniel Johnson-Thompson for the next score and then secured a success of his own to help extend the lead to 45-39 by half-time.

Surrey returned enlivened after the interval to force a turnover and would soon go on to draw level at 54-54. Worcester forward Jordan Williams powered to a series of close-to-the-basket scores to once more push the hosts 66-61 in front entering the final period.

Skyler White proved the danger man for the visitors as he coolly notched his fourth and fifth triples to aid another tie at 70-70 with five minutes to go.

A couple of minutes later daylight was again established at 82-76 after Okiki hurled a length of the court pass for Williams to turn into a spectacular flying dunk.

Scorchers’ persistence kept the game in the balance before Wolves showed just enough to edge the spoils.

McSwiggan led all scorers with 22 points. Williams produced a double-double performance with 19 points and 13 rebounds.

“Josh is a very talented player who is relishing coming back to play on home soil and Jordan is demonstrating that he can score in different ways,” added Newby.

Micah Elan contributed ten points, with Bouwknecht, Okiki and Johnson-Thompson tallying eight apiece. Latest signing Matthew Bryan-Amaning debuted with half-a-dozen points.

Wolves are quickly back into action at Plymouth Raiders this Sunday (3pm), leaving Newby to manage a tight timescale, saying:

“I was impressed with Plymouth’s personnel in their win over Bristol on Friday. We’ll need to be ready for the challenge of a less than 18-hour turnaround.”

If you missed last nights game, you can watch it in full on our YouTube channel below.

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