Worcester Wolves 88-80 St Helens Saints

Saturday 18th January 2025

By Colin Taylor

Worcester Wolves made it three wins from three matches in 2025 when defeating St Helens Saints 88-80 at the University of Worcester Arena on Saturday.

St Helens came into the contest with just a single loss from their ten outings but found themselves forced to bend the knee against the form team of National Basketball League Division Two.

A barrage of outside shooting pushed Wolves to a 42-38 half-time advantage. Though Saints rebounded to edge briefly ahead after the interval, the hosts calmly regained control and stayed composed until the final buzzer.

“I’m really happy,” exclaimed Coach Dean Blake. “We didn’t shoot the ball well in many of our early games but since Christmas it’s been a different story.

“At half-time today we were successful on seventy percent of our three-pointers, an amazing statistic, and maintained a good percentage until the end – that’s made a massive difference.

“We looked after the ball, we moved the ball around well, we did a really good job on the boards and we worked so hard. Everyone contributed.”

Former Worcester guard Disraeli Lufadeju returned to the city and spun to the opening basket on his way to an eventual game-high 25 points.

However, current Wolves stalwart Wilfrid Santhe similarly set up his stall early with a triple in reply.

Jacob Dearman also connected from the outside, Daijaun Antonio did likewise on his very first touch of the ball and Santhe slotted in a couple more as Worcester swept 25-19 ahead entering the second quarter.

Dearman hurled in an unlikely success as he fell to the floor when impeded and completed a four-point play from the resultant free-throw.

Wolves’ big-man pairing James Davis and Jeremy Lievin patrolled close to the hoop to clean up misses and aid their side’s half-time superiority.

After St Helens fleetingly threatened a turnaround, Fin Rennie drove forward for consecutive scores and then twice set his feet to gleefully join the three-point party.

The last quarter commenced with Worcester back in charge at 65-57.

Santhe continued to torment defenders, Davis growled at attackers and Antonio pulsed to further points as the home victory was sealed.

Santhe was a whisker away from a double-double display after dishing out nine assists alongside his own 21 points. Davis achieved the feat with a not-so-unlucky 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Dearman and Rennie contributed 15 points apiece, closely followed by Antonio’s 14. Lievin rounded out a spread of scorers with eight points, as well as pulling down ten rebounds.

“Some of our plays today were amazing,” added Blake. “Last week we took just six players up to Teesside and still won the game – that shows the character we’ve got here. We want to work and we want to fight.”

Although Wolves’ recent run of form has boosted them up to seventh place in the rankings, their next couple of outings will be at the homes of rivals also seeking to move clear from the foot of the table.

Next Saturday 25 January (2pm) they travel to ninth-placed Cardiff Met Archers, with a trip to eleventh-placed Liverpool on the cards for the week after.

“Our next games will be at teams positioned close to us but we’ll still prepare as we always do. We have to keep grounded and make sure that we come out with the same fight and resilience that we showed today,” Blake concluded. 

The club return to the University of Worcester Arena on Saturday 08 February (7.30pm) to host Derbyshire Arrows following on from the Wolves women taking on the London Cavaliers at 5pm. Super Saturday tickets are available here and from the Arena box office.