Worcester Wolves 59-63 Manchester Magic

Saturday 09 December 2023

By Colin Taylor

Worcester Wolves missed a chance to take down Manchester Magic, one of the National Basketball League’s big guns, at the University of Worcester Arena on Saturday.

With three minutes remaining sixth-placed Wolves held a 59-56 lead but thereafter failed to add to their total, allowing second-placed Magic to grab a 63-59 victory.

Manchester opened the evening the better, pushing 15-7 ahead before Worcester reduced the deficit to 19-15 entering the second quarter.

Jacob Dearman hit his second three-pointer to further close matters to 24-23 and, when Emmanuel Yeboah dribbled the length of the court to set up a Zak Riabi triple, Wolves drew level.

Nyake Tucker introduced himself by tipping in a long-range Riabi miss, giving his new team a 36-35 edge in the last minute of the first half.

Magic nudged back into a 37-36 interval advantage, but the closeness of the score-line was not matched by a huge disparity in the rebounding count.

The visitors’ consistently leapt first and highest to own the area around both baskets with 32-17 half-time superiority on the boards.

Manchester’s rebounding control persisted after the break with Worcester only able to muster a couple of third-quarter inside successes and falling 54-49 behind.

Tom Grayling returned from injury to make an immediate impact. Toughing out a quartet of scores inspired his teammates to dent Magic’s composure, forcing a series of turnovers.

However, with just Grayling now moving the Wolves side of the scoreboard, Manchester totted up the last points of the match to take the win.

Dearman and Riabi led the scoring with a dozen points apiece, entirely made up of four three-pointers for each player.

Coach Dean Blake expressed his disappointment after the defeat, saying: “Ultimately it’s about maturity – the things that we didn’t do are basic.

“We didn’t box out for rebounds, we weren’t composed. It’s frustrating because it’s not as if we don’t practise these things every day in training.”

Wolves play their final fixture before the festive season at Northants Titans next Saturday 16 December (tip off 5pm), returning to the University of Worcester Arena on Saturday 06 January 2024 to host Bristol Basketball United.

“We beat Northants in our first game of the season but they’ve played a quite a few games since then so will have grown as a group and will want to avenge that defeat,” added Blake.