Bristol Basketball United 87-86 Worcester Wolves

Saturday 12th October 2024

By Colin Taylor

A disrupted Worcester Wolves lost out in cruel circumstances at Bristol Basketball United on Saturday.

Forced to cope with the early departure from the action of starting point guard Wilfrid Santhe Worcester nonetheless manfully juggled their resources to come within a whisker of snatching a win at their M5 neighbours, suffering a harsh 87-86 reversal.

Wolves’ USA forward James Davis stole the ball to set up a Jacob Dearman three-pointer as the match began. But by the third minute of play Bristol had grabbed the next eight points and Santhe had left the court.

The hosts quickly accelerated a 19-15 opening quarter advantage into 30-15 dominance after only a couple of minutes of the second period.

Consecutive Emmanuel Yeboah baskets eventually halted the onslaught at midway through the quarter.

A Davis dunk and threes for Zak Riabi and Finn Rennie closed the deficit to 39-31, before the half-time scoreboard re-settled at 47-35 in Bristol’s favour.

A second-half turnaround saw Yeboah and Davis consistently hit the target to shoot their side 55-53 ahead by six minutes after the break.

Double successes from distance by Riabi tipped the scales firmly in favour of the visitors to produce a 67-61 score-line at the close of three quarters.

Bristol then took their turn in the box seat to build what looked like an unassailable lead at 85-76 entering the final minute of the afternoon.

However, refusing to wave a flag of surrender, Worcester repeatedly sent their opponents to the free-throw line to slow the game-clock. 

Last-gasp triples from Yeboah and Riabi dragged the deficit down to just 87-86 with three seconds remaining before time finally ticked agonisingly away.

Yeboah powered to a rare triple-double performance of 26 points, ten assists and 13 rebounds while Davis logged double-double numbers of 19 points and a matching 13 boards.

Dearman and Riabi both notched a quartet of three-pointers in their returns of 15 and 12 points respectively.

Wolves return to the University of Worcester Arena next Saturday 19 October (7.30pm) to face Teesside Lions. Get your Tickets here