Stourport Spartans 69-70 Worcester Wolves

Sunday 07 November 2021 – by Colin Taylor

Worcester Wolves needed to fend off a late surge at neighbouring Stourport Spartans as they edged a 70-69 derby thriller on Sunday to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.

Wolves held a relatively healthy 59-47 fourth quarter lead that was halved to 69-63 by the final minute of the match, ahead of Spartans, urged on by a baying capacity crowd, just failing to complete their comeback.

Coach Dean Blake acknowledged that his played four, won four side had been forced into a battle by their single-win opponents. “I was expecting a competitive game but, if I’m honest, I can’t say I was expecting it to be that close,” said Blake.

“We were making uncharacteristic unforced errors that Stourport capitalised on. We didn’t play to our best.

“Their fans got behind them and their confidence grew. But this sort of audience shouldn’t be anything new to our players with us turning out in front of big and noisy crowds back in Worcester.

“We need to concentrate on being more composed in certain situations.”

Wilfrid Santhe and Kieran Lee both shrugged off defenders to put Wolves 13-9 in front before Stourport’s Daniel Sargeant brought home fans to their feet with a thunderous slam.

But Austin Payne soon quietened the clamour as he rattled in a trio of three-pointers to establish a 19-13 first period Worcester advantage.

Matei Balteanu put in work close to the hoop to aid a 36-28 half-time lead for the visitors.

Santhe dribbled through traffic to widen the gap but Ronan Forbes replied with a rare four-point play when he was impeded as he sunk a shot from the top of the key.

Sam Heafield similarly connected from afar to close matters to 38-35 by midway through the third quarter.

Wolves once more drew away from their opponents on the back of Balteanu fighting inside and Santhe directing affairs from the outside.

However, a slew of missed free throws kept the outcome in the balance. Heafield dropped in another triple for a 69-66 score-line with 34 seconds remaining and his side in possession.

A missed shot left Spartans to hack at Worcester guard Sergi Estany and put him on the foul-line. Despite having failed on three of his previous four free-throw attempts, Estany was now able to split a latest pair to move his side 70-66 ahead.

A successful James Turner hurl as time expired was not quite enough to deny the visitors the victory.

Santhe led the scoring with 18 points, followed closely by 17 for Balteanu. Payne chipped in 11 points.

Wolves are on the road again next week, visiting Derby Trailblazers on Sunday 14 November (4pm).