Worcester Wolves 88-77 Leicester Warriors

Saturday 22 October 2022

By Colin Taylor

Worcester Wolves kept up their unbeaten start to their debut National Basketball League Division Two campaign with a gritty 88-77 victory over Leicester Warriors on Saturday.

A big crowd was on hand at the University of Worcester Arena, eager to find out how Wolves measured up against a side that competed in Division One last season. Fans were rewarded with an always competitive encounter that was only truly decided in the final few minutes.

The opening seven points of the match all went the way of the visitors. It would take until the third minute before Matei Balteanu was able to set the hosts on their way.

After five minutes Leicester still held sway at 12-6 before a Worcester outburst overturned the lead. Wilfrid Santhe forced a turnover, Lucas McGregor produced confident drives and Tom Grayling was the recipient of a double of clever hand-offs from Balteanu and Aryan Davoodi during an impressive 16-1 surge.

A series of baskets from Jacob Solvason and consecutive McGregor three-pointers meant that a 22-13 first quarter cushion was maintained at 40-31 by half-time.

Warriors brought matters back to 51-47 by midway through the third period with back-and-forth scoring resulting in a 63-58 score-line as final quarter began.

Balteanu was in the right place to benefit from successive Solvason and Santhe assists for a 73-60 advantage that threatened to decide the victors. However, wily Leicester veterans Carl Pearson and Leon Henry once more reduced the deficit to 82-74 entering the last two minutes of action.

Clock-management finally decided the contest as the ball flew around the court for the full 24-second allowance to end in a Santhe rainbow triple, leaving insufficient time for Warriors to fight back again.

Balteanu led the scoring on 27 points, followed by 16 points from McGregor and 14 for Solvason.

“We’ve just played a side full of experience, coached by Karl Brown, a Hall-of-Famer in terms of his playing and coaching achievements,” said Wolves’ coach Dean Blake. ”I’m really glad that we could get the win over such a seasoned team as Leicester.”   

Wolves travel down the M5 next Saturday 29 October (4pm) to visit the Bristol Hurricanes. The weekend after, on Saturday 5 November, they host Bristol Academy Flyers at the University of Worcester Arena.