Saturday 23 March 2012 Worcester Wolves 82-91 Manchester Giants

A familiar face came back to haunt Worcester on Saturday evening as ex-forward David Watts blitzed the Wolves with 29 points during Manchester Giants’ 91-82 upset victory at the University of Worcester.

The Wolves came into the game having lost the night before to an in-form team, the Sheffield Sharks, but should have still expected to be able to comfortably deal with an opponent who had won just three games since the start of this year. Worcester had no answer on defence to a barrage of accurate three-point shooting from Watts and from Giants’ point guard Stefan Gill, while Alex Owumi was left to plough a lone furrow offensively, finishing with 30 points.

The game began ponderously for both sides. Centre Arturas Masiulis notched Wolves’ first four points and Sherrad Prezzie-Blue hit a triple for a 9-8 lead after six minutes. Although the hosts led by 19-13 at the end of the opening quarter, ominously, it had been left to Owumi to tally the remainder of his team’s scoring output.

Kalil Irving extended the Wolves’ lead to nine points, but it was from here that the match turned as Manchester set off on a commanding 21-4 run over the next five minutes. Gill swished home consecutive three-pointers and then a two. Irving impeded Watts as he put the ball through the hoop and the former Wolves’ stalwart also made the bonus free throw. Gill passed to Watts for a three, and Watts returned the favour for a Gill three, forcing exasperated Wolves’ coach Paul James to request time out, trailing 25-34.

The break in proceedings could not stem the Giants’ attacks, but at least Worcester were now able to respond with a few scores of their own. Manchester went into the half-time break ahead at 47-35, with Gill and Watts already on 16 and 12 points respectively, while Owumi was the only player to make any significant impact on the Wolves’ side of the scoreboard, with 16 points.

As the second half opened it soon became clear that Wolves had been unable to formulate a plan to deal with Giants’ incessant rain of outside shooting. England International guards James Jones and Devan Bailey joined the three-point frenzy, increasing their side’s advantage to 54-40 after a couple of minutes.

At midway through the third period man-on-a-mission Watts once more let fly, hitting eight points in a row during little more than a minute, prompting another Wolves’ time out as they struggled to stay with their opponents at 46-68.

Entering the final ten minutes of the evening, Stan Ocitti made a basket to reduce the deficit to 59-73, but home supporters were again left to gaze in wonder at the power of Watts as he immediately responded by floating in yet another score from outside the arc.

Although Worcester small forwards Carlos Fernandez and Kai Williams briefly ignited to support the scoring of a tiring Owumi, the continuation of numerous careless passes, wayward shooting and an inability to close down Giants’ attackers, confirmed that the game had already been lost.

Coach James was upset at seeing his side stumble to a second successive defeat, commenting: “I’m very disappointed. We didn’t shoot the ball well today, or last night in Sheffield.”

Before this weekend’s action the Wolves had been without a game for nearly a fortnight and James believes that this had a detrimental effect on his players, saying: “The break didn’t do us any good at all. We looked really out of synch. We are going to have to put a lot of work in between now and Tuesday when we face Newcastle.”

Aside from Owumi, only Masiulis and Ocitti tallied double-figure scoring with 12 and 11 points respectively. Watts made six of seven three-point attempts amongst his 29 points, while Gill hit five triples amongst his 24 points. Overall, Manchester made 14 of 30 three-point attempts while Worcester could only convert five of 29 attempts.

There will be a quick chance for Wolves to make it up to their fans with a double of home games at the University of Worcester this week. On Tuesday (tip off 7.30pm) Newcastle Eagles will visit the city, followed by Plymouth Raiders also making the trip to Worcester on Good Friday (tip off 7.30pm).