Saturday 19 April 2014 Surrey United 77-103 Worcester Wolves

In their first game of this British Basketball League season, back in September, Worcester Wolves came away from a trip to Surrey United with a massive 117-60 victory. Seven months later the venue was the same for Wolves in their final regular season game and, while the winning margin may not have been quite so large, the outcome was another comprehensive win for Coach Paul James’ charges.

This latest 103-77 triumph puts Worcester, at least temporarily, into second place in the table, pending the outcome of Sheffield Sharks’ match at Plymouth Raiders on Sunday afternoon. If the Sharks lose in Devon, Wolves will retain their placing and face the league’s seventh-place finisher in the first round of the post-season playoffs. A Sharks win will drop Wolves to third place and mean their opponents, over two legs, will be the London Lions.

A couple of baskets each for forward Stefan Djukic and guard Zaire Taylor were the feature of a 12-7 start for Worcester. For Surrey, Lithuanian centre Ces Kucinskas was the early standout, hitting six points to aid his team to climb back to 19-18 by the last minute of the quarter. When American import Nick Freer then opened his scoring account, the visitors trailed for the first time.

Aside from three wins over bottom-of-the-table Birmingham Knights, Surrey have only tasted success in one other match this season. Accordingly, they could have been excused for finding it difficult to hold on to a lead against one of this year’s elite sides. And so it proved to be when a score from Taylor restored natural order within a couple of minutes of the beginning of the second period.

On the next play Taylor tormented his opposite number Joel Henry into giving up the ball, and the Surrey player immediately compounded his error by fouling Kai Williams on a three-point shot attempt. Williams made two of the three free throws he was consequently awarded, and a moment later stood clear to sink a three-point shot and open daylight between the teams at 31-26. It was from here that United crumbled. Club captain Alex Owumi floated home the first two of what would prove to be six personal triples overall, and by half-time the lead had accelerated to 52-36.

Owumi’s hot streak carried over past the interval. When a Djukic missed free throw bounced out it was Owumi who was the first to react, immediately passing the ball back for the Serbian big man to dunk through the hoop. Between the fourth and sixth minutes of the third quarter Owumi totally knocked the stuffing out of Surrey with a stunning burst of three consecutive triples, helping Wolves establish an unassailable 72-48 advantage.

Entering the last ten minutes coasting at 80-56, there was no let-up in the torture. Taylor and Owumi both converted from the outside, and young English forward Harry Turner then delighted a sizeable band of travelling Worcester fans by joining the three-point shooting party. In the final seconds, for good measure, reserve guard Caylin Raftopoulos ensured he also dotted his name on the scoresheet with a long-range success, tipping Worcester over the century of points tallied.

Just as in Friday’s win over Glasgow Rocks, there was an even spread of scorers across the Worcester roster. Owumi led the way with 24 points, closely followed by Taylor with 22. Taylor served up ten assists to register a double-double of statistics, while Will Creekmore also grabbed the honour, with a 19 point and eleven rebound performance. Williams and Djukic made their mark with 19 and nine points respectively. Kucinskas top-scored for Surrey with 26 points.

While Wolves await confirmation of the name of their opponents for the first round of the playoffs, the timing of the second leg of the encounter has already been set. This will take place at the University of Worcester Arena next Sunday afternoon, 27 April, (tip off 3pm).