Worcester Wolves 89-71 Bristol Basketball United

Saturday 6th January 2024

By Colin Taylor

Worcester Wolves started the New Year in style by dismantling Bristol Basketball United 89-71 on Saturday.

Already forced by weather conditions to cope with the disruption of relocating to the St Johns campus from the University of Worcester Arena, Wolves also needed to overcome the unavailability of Coach Dean Blake to oversee operations.

But, roared on by an excitable capacity crowd, Worcester raced to a 12-2 lead by just the third minute of the match and successfully kept Bristol at arm’s length for the rest of the evening.

Kieran Howell stepped across from his usual role directing Wolves Women’s team to take the coaching reins and spoke of his delight at the opportunity.

“I have to give Dean a big shout out for giving me this chance. I said to the players that we needed to start well, that we had to run and that we had to stick together as a team.

“But when I saw everyone fired up in the locker room, and the atmosphere from the fans when we came on court, I could see the players were already set to go.

“The guys knew exactly what they had to do – I was just a cheerleader here today, the win was definitely all down to the players.”

Humberto Ferreira was the feature of Worcester’s fast start, jumping highest to grab the tipoff, swatting away a Bristol attack and bagging five points before giving way for the return from a lengthy injury lay-off of Matei Balteanu.

Balteanu immediately impacted with a powerful drive and delighted in accepting a pass from another long-term injury returnee, point guard Wilfrid Santhe.

Nine points had gone the way of the Romanian forward by the time the second period began with Wolves 29-19 to the good.

Emmanuel Yeboah and Jacob Dearman both connected with three-pointers, Balteanu barrelled over defenders and paired again with Santhe to aid a 50-37 half-time cushion.

Yeboah spun to the hoop to open second-half proceedings and James Harrop came to the fore with a swift seven points as the hosts maintained 69-54 third-quarter control.

Yeboah’s effervescence continued as he hurled a lengthy pass for Harrop to convert and jumped every which way for further personal points.

A flying two-handed slam from Ferreira ignited the victory celebrations.

Yeboah filled the statistics with 25 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists while Balteanu also returned a 17 points/12 rebounds double-double.

James Harrop and Zak Riabi supplied 14 and ten points respectively.

“Emmanuel reminded me at the end that he was only one assist away from a triple-double, but I replied that if he hadn’t also picked up four fouls then he might have had more time to get it,” joked Howell. “But, seriously, he had a fabulous game for us today and I’m made up for him.

“Allied to that, I have to give a special mention to Matei for being the ultimate professional – he does everything right. We’ve missed his and Wilf’s tenacity – their one-two punches today were just like the old days.”

Wolves are back at the University of Worcester Arena next Sunday 14 January (5pm) to host title-challenging St Helens Saints.

“It doesn’t matter if we’re playing a team at the top of the table or at the bottom of the table, it’s a tough league regardless,” added Howell. “As long as we repeat the things we’ve done today we’ll do alright – let’s go and get them!”

Get your tickets for Sundays game against St Helens Saints HERE