City of Birmingham Rockets 70-55 Worcester Wolves

Saturday 15th April 2023

By Colin Taylor

Worcester Wolves were forced to bow out of the National Basketball League Division Two playoffs at high-flying City of Birmingham Rockets on Saturday.

Wolves fought their way into a first-half lead before eventually buckling under the superior depth of top-seeded Birmingham, losing 70-55 to a side with just a single defeat to their name across the entire season.

With several players unavailable for selection, Worcester coach Dean Blake had to give major minutes to just a half-dozen of his charges while Birmingham were able to capitalise on the luxury of a full roster.

“Ultimately we didn’t have enough left in the tank against the numbers they had,” said Blake. ”They kept rolling players in and at the vital time we weren’t able to hold onto the game.

“Nevertheless we competed and I’m proud of the effort our guys put in.”

Wolves quieted a raucous sell-out crowd by holding their hosts scoreless for the opening three and a half minutes while slotting in six points of their own.

Lucas McGregor had the early hot hand, repeatedly driving strongly to the hoop and finalising a 12-point burst with an imperious triple.

Wilfrid Santhe profited from an unsportsmanlike foul after a midcourt tussle with Ronald Oberia and Ian Vivero-Rodriguez set up Tom Grayling to close out a 19-14 first-quarter advantage.

Rockets final got their noses in front at 23-22 three minutes into the second period before a spectacular spell of play reversed the lead and brought a throng of travelling Worcester fans to their feet in delight.

Birmingham’s much-travelled BBL veteran Sam Toluwase embarrassingly mistimed an attempted rim-rocker and then had to suffer seeing McGregor immediately propel the rebound to Grayling who duly threw down an assured two-handed slam.

Back-and-forth baskets saw Rockets into a 30-28 half-time edge.

The closeness of the contest carried on to a 35-35 tie by midway through the third quarter before Wolves began to wilt.

A rallying time-out preceded Santhe standing stoutly against his much taller opponent to repel an attack and draw an offensive foul, but continued Birmingham pounding now wedged daylight between the sides.

Entering the final period trailing 46-39, a tiring Worcester were unable to prevent the deficit widening.

By five minutes of the evening remaining a series of wayward passes had extinguished the visitors’ last hopes of victory. Toluwase thrilled Rockets fans by placing his feet in the right place to dunk the ball home ahead of the final buzzer.

McGregor dominated the statistics with 22 points and nine rebounds while Grayling also flirted with a double-double performance by posting ten points and seven rebounds.

Oberia and Toluwase led the Birmingham output with 21 and 16 points respectively.

St Helens Saints’ 79-68 win at London Elite sets up an all-northern Division Two Playoff Final at Manchester’s National Basketball Performance Centre next Saturday 22 April.

Blake was at pains to highlight what he saw as a successful 2022-23 season in Worcester:

“We’ve had a really good year with a lot of first-year players doing well for us.

“We’ve played in 24 matches this year and unfortunately fell just short of making one more game, the Final in Manchester.

“At the same time the club has done a fabulous job off the court by pulling in some big crowds back in Worcester and attracting another big turnout of fans to follow us here to Birmingham.

“All in all it’s been a good season for us.”