Saturday 31 January 2015 Leicester Riders 80-71 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves were forced to relinquish their hold on the BBL Trophy they won last March, after failing to overcome in-form Leicester Riders in their quarter-final clash on Saturday

While it was always going to be a tough proposition to face a team who had lost just twice on their own court in over a year, Wolves made it even harder by a ponderous start to the match. Trailing by double-digits for much of the evening, hope finally arrived for a large band of travelling fans when a 12-0 run at the start of the last quarter rattled the Riders.

However, the supply of energy needed to drag the score all the way back to 66-62 seemed to have been exhausted as Leicester regained their composure and secured the 80-71 success.

The post-match statistics showed that Riders produced double the number of assists of their visitors, as well as gathering fifty percent more rebounds. Wolves’ coach Paul James spotlighted the differences, saying: “Two things stood out for me. Firstly they killed us on the boards – our bigs needed to be more aggressive, making multiple efforts to get the ball, rather than just one effort. Added to that we had only ten assists tonight which shows we didn’t run our offense the way we should have, and didn’t get people open.”

Leicester laid down a marker from the outset, with forward Trayvonn Wright first to the tip-off, and guard Tyler Bernardini confidently floating home a three-pointer. Going into the second quarter leading 25-21, Riders’ pattern of superiority, both on the inside and from the outside, had been set. Their lead ballooned to 40-27 when a long shot attempt from Neil Watson bounced up off the ring and Wright gleefully leapt unhindered above the metalwork to jam the ball through the net.

By half-time the Riders advantage stood at 51-36. Worcester captain Alex Owumi found his range to sink a couple of triples, but there was scant support from any other source during the third quarter.

Entering the final period in command at 66-50, Leicester’s offense suddenly dried up. Remi Dibo opened his scoring account from distance, and Paul Guede was similarly accurate. Another Guede score prompted a Riders’ timeout. From the re-start it was more of the same with Owumi again on target to bring matters to 66-61.

Faced by rejuvenated opponents, a harassed Watson then hastily inbounded the ball from the end-line all the way into his own backcourt. However, a further timeout restored calm for the hosts and finally quelled Worcester’s revival.

James acknowledged his side’s late improvement, but noted that the damage had already been done, remarking: “We showed battling spirit towards the end, but we needed that at the start. In the first half we were not allowed to play our game. It was too little too late.”

Owumi and Guede were the only stand-out Worcester scorers, with 19 and 15 points respectively.
Wolves return to league action this Friday at the University of Worcester Arena, hosting Bristol Flyers. “I’m disappointed to lose in the Trophy, but we’re still fighting for the league title. We will re-group and work on running our offenses better and showing more determination in rebounding,” added James.