Sunday 07 February 2016 Manchester Giants 74-79 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves maintained third place in the British Basketball League after a battling 79-74 win on the road at Manchester Giants on Sunday.

Finding themselves rooted at the foot of the table has prompted Manchester to call in recent re-enforcements, most notably Great Britain power forward Flo Larkai. The additions to their roster very nearly enabled the Giants to overcome high-flying Worcester, with the match in the balance until the final few seconds.

Former Wolves guard Callum Jones levelled the contest at 70-70 before Ashton Khan sprinted to the other hoop, drawing a foul in the process, for a bonus three-point play. Another acrobatic Khan basket a moment later was enough for Wolves to finally draw clear of their pesky opponents.

Coach Paul James described his relief at the final outcome, saying: “It was a dogfight. You can’t rest on anyone in this league, whatever their position. Despite some difficult spells of play we showed a lot of character to find a way to get the win.”

Jay Couisnard shrugged off recent injury concerns to lead the Wolves’ scorers with 21 points, followed closely by ever-reliable centre Perris Blackwell with 19 points.

“We had a few players off their game, but Perris and Jay stepped up. Ashton had a bitty game, but came through for us at the end,” added James.

The evening began in close fashion. A trio of scores for Khan was matched by a trio from Jones, tying things up at 17-17. Blackwell made his first basket from the field to help Wolves edge ahead at 24-19 by the initial quarter’s close.

By midway through the second period a series of successes for Couisnard established a double-figure gap at 37-27. However, Giants’ dangerous Latvian forward Ingus Bankevics found enough room to float home three outside-the-arc shots and close the margin to 42-39 by half-time.

A frantic two-minute spell in the third quarter saw Manchester wrest control of the match from their visitors. Blackwell, Orlan Jackman and Pavol Losonsky all gave up possession of the ball, with Jones and Bankevics posting seven points without reply to move their side in front at 44-50.

The last period saw Wolves re-awaken. Jackman finally inked the scoresheet with a triple to bring the sides back together at 61-61. Reserve guard Disraeli Lufadeju did likewise, before mutual turnovers kept the outcome in question.

Wolves now get ready for arguably their most meaningful spell of the season so far, with a demanding three games over just five days. First up will be the visit of fourth-placed Sheffield Sharks to the University of Worcester Arena this Friday, 12 February.

 

After that, on Valentine’s Day, (tip off 3pm),  there is likely to be little love in the air when Wolves host Newcastle Eagles, looking to overturn a seven point BBL Trophy semi-final first-leg  deficit, for the right to progress to the competition’s climax in Glasgow at the end of this month.

 

The quick turnaround of matches will conclude at another of this season’s challengers for honours, London Lions, on Tuesday 16 February.

 

James believes it will be a challenge for his team, but one that they will be ready for, saying: “That’s a tough series of games, but that’s the sort of competition that I like.

 

“We begin with a vital game against Sheffield, with us close to each other in the table. We’ll push hard against them and only after that will we turn our focus to Valentine’s Day versus Newcastle and, of course, travelling to London after that.

 

“We sold out at home against Newcastle a few weeks back and it was the big crowd that kept us going. It makes such a difference to our team to have everyone’s support behind us. Hopefully there’ll be another couple of big turnouts on Friday and Sunday, and hopefully we’ll do something special for them in return.”