Saturday 26 September 2015 Leicester Riders 88-54 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves had the misfortune to run into the roadblock that is this year’s stacked Leicester Riders squad on Saturday. After barely edging past relative newcomers to the British Basketball League, Bristol Flyers, the night before, it was always going to be tough for Wolves to then compete against one of the country’s long-established contenders for honours.

Riders sped into a double-digit lead after only five minutes had elapsed, kept their foot on the gas to register twice their visitors’ points total before half-time and ruthlessly maintained their domination until the final 88-54 score-line.

Fifteen seconds into the evening former Leicester stalwart Jay Couisnard began the scoring, but this would prove to be the one and only moment that Worcester were in contention. Guard Neil Watson sliced through stationary Wolves’ defenders to level matters, forward Trayvonn Wright rattled home seven quick points and the pattern for the evening was already set.

Such was the embarrassment of riches on Leicester’s roster that their Coach Rob Paternostro was soon able to sit down a couple of his starting five, only to then introduce a couple of Great Britain Internationals in Andrew Sullivan and Flo Larkai onto the court.

A 9-26 first quarter deficit had ballooned out to 19-39 by midway through the second period. There was a rare moment of amusement for travelling Worcester supporters to see referee Neil Wilkinson stride to the Wolves bench to loudly exclaim that he needed no help from them in making his decisions, an ironic declaration given that no intervention from any quarter would be likely to alter the course of what was taking place.

By the time that a shell-shocked Wolves’ team trooped to the locker rooms trailing 29-50, only Perris Blackwell had registered double-figure scoring. By contrast Watson had already accumulated 20 points, including a quartet of three-pointers, while Wright had tallied thirteen points.

Despite failing to sink any of their thirteen first-half attempts from outside the arc, in the face of impenetrable defence around the basket, Wolves continued to pull the trigger from downtown. It would prove to be an ineffective tactic, with just a single success in nine further attempts.

39-65 behind entering the final ten minutes, there was still no let-up in the onslaught. Sullivan casually swatted aside a Couisnard effort and subsequently dunked the ball home at the other end. Not to be outdone, Wright entertained a capacity crowd by powering the length of the court for a ferocious slam.

By the close of the evening Wolves’ Assistant Coach Alex Radu could do no more than acknowledge that his team had been outclassed, saying: “We didn’t compete, especially at the defensive end. Leicester shot the ball extremely well and we had no answer for their guard Neil Watson.”

It will be a couple of weeks before Wolves are back in action, with a trip to Manchester Giants on Sunday 11 October. After that they will return to the University of Worcester Arena on Friday 16 October to host Glasgow Rocks.

“We will need to address what has taken place this weekend. We didn’t finish off Bristol when we should have last night, and then we simply couldn’t stay with Leicester tonight,” added Radu.