Sunday 31 January 2016 Worcester Wolves 85-66 Glasgow Rocks

Worcester Wolves rolled to a comfortable 85-66 triumph in their BBL Trophy quarter- final encounter with Glasgow Rocks on Sunday.

The win now sets up a tasty two-legged tie against the high-flying Newcastle Eagles for the right to progress to the competition’s final in Glasgow on Saturday 27 February, against either Sheffield Sharks or Leicester Riders.

Wolves’ prior two outings saw a fine home victory over the previously-unbeaten Eagles, closely followed by a much less-convincing success at lowly Surrey Scorchers. On this occasion it was the more-impressive Worcester team that was on display at the University of Worcester Arena.

Wolves had built up a healthy 54-38 lead by half-time and did enough to maintain this cushion until the game’s conclusion. Big men Pavol Losonsky and Perris Blackwell combined for 41 of their side’s points total, taking advantage of a raft of assists from Wolves’ guards.

Josh Cameron bulleted a long pass to Javier Mugica to open the evening and nailed a score of his own shortly after. A double of three-pointers for Orlan Jackman and the inside presence of Losonsky laid the foundations for a 28-21 first quarter advantage.

By a couple of minutes into the second period Blackwell had debuted on the scoresheet. He then proceeded to pitch camp alongside Losonsky next to the Glasgow basket.

Time and again the pair were presented with gilt-edged opportunities to score by their team-mates, gleefully accepting the gifts to more than double Worcester’s lead by the interval.

Cameron compounded the Rocks’ discomfort after the break, snatching the ball from Armin Mazic and leaping high in the air for a two-handed dunk. Consecutive triples for Jay Couisnard helped push his side further in front to 73-53 by the close of the third period.

The final quarter saw a dearth of scoring, though by then the outcome had already been firmly settled in Wolves’ favour.

Coach Paul James summarised events, saying; “It was a convincing victory although I thought it really should have been even more convincing had we not eased up later in the game.”

Looking ahead to the forthcoming semi-final against Newcastle James added, “It will undoubtedly be a challenge, but we’ve already shown what we can do against them. To get to a final you have to play whoever is in front of you – we won’t be afraid, we’ll look forward to it.”

Asked about the motorway crash on Friday that led to the postponement of that night’s match at Leeds Force, James was keen to re-assure everyone about the well-being of those caught up in the accident, saying: “It certainly wasn’t pleasant, but could have been even worse. We’re all fine now. It was one of those incidents that couldn’t have been avoided.”