Sunday 26 April 2015 London Lions 106-67 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves’ quest to hold on to the BBL Play-Off title they won at Wembley last season came to an abrupt end on Sunday as they crashed to a 67-106 defeat at in-form London Lions.

Already needing to retrieve a five-point deficit outstanding from the quarter final first leg, Wolves’ task was made even harder when former Worcester favourite Zaire Taylor stepped to the fore with a stunning 41-point outburst.

Wolves’ guard Chavis Holmes began the scoring, before Taylor immediately replied with a triple. Holmes was again on the mark to level the match at 7-7 with five minutes played, but this would be the last juncture at which Worcester stayed close to their opponents. Taylor would rack up a further 13 points before the first quarter had ended, with his side already holding a healthy 24-16 advantage.

His backcourt partner Rod Brown took the first score of the second period, with Taylor content to wait until four minutes before the interval to re-emerge with another quick-fire ten points. There was a brief revival for the visitors when Holmes provided a double of assists for Alex Owumi to convert into three-pointers, but Lions still held sway at 49-38 by the break.

The third quarter was when Worcester’s last hopes of an upset were extinguished, as they suffered a 30-10 blast from their hosts. If it was not Taylor connecting from outside the arc, it would be Great Britain captain Andrew Sullivan proving a handful inside. In addition, Wolves often found their usual rhythm disrupted by a scarcity of referees’ calls at the offensive end, but a profusion called around their own basket.

Entering the final ten minutes of play with an unassailable 79-48 lead, London were already able to make plans for their semi-final encounter with Cheshire Phoenix. The other teams competing in the final four will be Newcastle Eagles and Sheffield Sharks. Eagles routinely disposed of Bristol Flyers, while seventh-placed Sharks upset much-fancied Leicester Riders to stay in the hunt for a place at the O2 Arena on Sunday 10 May.

Speaking shortly after the end of the match, Wolves’ coach Paul James tried hard to contain his disappointment, saying: “London played very well and Zaire certainly had a big game so all credit to them, but I feel sad for our players and fans at how our season has ended.

“I thought we had a great chance coming into the match to pull back the deficit, but feel we just didn’t get the rub of the green in how it turned out. It says something that we went to the free throw line just 16 times while London went there 42 times.”

Sullivan was London’s second-highest scorer on 22 points, while only Owumi (18 points) and Holmes (13 points) were able to reach double-figure scoring for Wolves.

In relation to the season as a whole, James added: “While we have obviously not achieved the success we had last year, that was always going to be a very tough act to follow, with new players having some big shoes to fill.

“The players have worked hard throughout the year and we’ve had some really good times. Season-on-season we are now confirming Worcester as one of the country’s top-level teams.”

Wolves’ Managing Director Mick Donovan added to James’ words, saying: “We’ve had some really exciting and entertaining matches this season, with big crowds coming along to the University of Worcester Arena. This team has shown that it can beat anybody, including defeating the League Champions, Newcastle Eagles, each time we’ve met them.

“We intend to recruit well in the off-season. We intend to drive this club to become the leading side in the British Basketball League.”