Friday 25 September 2015 Worcester Wolves 78-76 Bristol Flyers

Worcester Wolves gave a big University of Worcester Arena crowd palpitations before they finally managed to squeeze out a 78-76 victory over a plucky Bristol Flyers side on Friday.

In only their second year in the British Basketball League the Flyers are already showing that they fully deserve their place in the top flight. Despite falling into a double-figure hole during the third quarter, they roared back to almost deny Wolves their second consecutive win.

With less than a minute remaining the match was tied at 73-73, before Bristol guard Cardell McFarland stunned home supporters by floating home a long-range effort. As a delighted McFarland celebrated by miming the replacing of pistols in a holster, he was quickly brought back to reality when Wolves’ star man Jay Couisnard was similarly on target from afar.

Throughout the evening Worcester forward Pavol Losonsky had been locked in battle with his opposite number Mathias Seilund. When Seilund once more blocked the path of Losonsky, he was whistled for an infringement. The Worcester man calmly sank both of the resultant foul shots. With a mere three seconds to play there was an end to the dueling when Losonsky harassed Seilund into a desperation hurl that fell just short of the Wolves’ basket.

Seven first-quarter points apiece for Couisnard and Losonsky in a 23-11 lead looked to have laid the foundations for a relatively comfortable outing. Intercepting a wayward McFarland pass, Losonsky galloped away to thrill fans with a powerful reverse dunk as the advantage widened to 31-16.

Trailing 40-31 by half-time, Flyers found a way back when netting a trio of three-pointers to draw level at 43-43. However, once Wolves’ Perris Blackwell sank successive close-range buckets, the deficit once more grew out to 64-54 entering the last period.

Bristol’s captain Greg Streete showed his leadership qualities with eight points to haul his side back into the contest and set up the nail-biting finale.

Worcester Coach Paul James admitted his relief after the game, saying: “We were already up by ten points at half-time, and it could easily have been twenty. Unfortunately we allowed them back in and they shot the ball well from the outside. We were lucky to get away with this win.”

“We must take the easy scoring opportunities if we want to live with the top teams,” added James.

Losonsky dominated the statistics with 29 points and 16 rebounds, followed by Couisnard’s 22 points. McFarland and Seilund led the way for Bristol with 24 and 21 points respectively.

Next home game at the University of Worcester Arena is on Friday 16th October when the Worcester Wolves host the Glasgow Rocks.