Worcester Wolves 82-66 Sheffield Sharks

Saturday 27 October 2012

Worcester Wolves followed up Friday’s 86-54 demolition of Mersey Tigers with a business-like 82-66 dismissal of Sheffield Sharks at the University of Worcester on Saturday evening.

While the trip to lowly Mersey was a chance for Wolves’ coach Paul James to give plenty of court time to the less-experienced members of his squad, the visit of the Sharks was expected to be a much sterner test. Accordingly, James took few risks with his line-up on Saturday and his senior players responded well to the challenge.

A wide-open lay up from Wolves’ centre Arturas Masiulis opened the night’s scoring and was quickly followed by consecutive three-pointers from Carlos Fernandez and Alex Owumi. Midway through the first quarter a powerful dunk from Stan Ocitti had the Wolves leading 12-6. A moment later Ocitti again rose up to the slam the ball home and was then tugged back by Sheffield forward Mike Tuck as he attempted to head back down the court. An unsportsmanlike foul was called on Tuck and he was promptly benched by Sharks’ coach Atiba Lyons for the rest of the first half.

A 24-12 first quarter advantage for the home side was soon increased when Arnas Kazlauskas made all three foul shots awarded to him as a result of a clumsy grab by Sheffield’s former Great Britain forward Olu Babalola. Just as in the case of Tuck, Babalola was also ordered to the bench by his coach. The opportunity for more space for their quicker players was seized upon by Sharks’ American guard combo of Gage Daye and Micah Williams. Ten points between them helped the visitors to close the deficit to 38-31 by the half-time break.

In the second half it was Masiulis who once more set the scoreboard in motion, followed by a steal and layup from Fernandez. Five points from Williams dragged matters back to 42-36, before Owumi hit his third triple of the evening. Another Masiulis basket preceded an imperious finger-wagging block of a Tuck shot attempt. At 49-40 with three minutes of the period remaining Lyons called time out. When the sides returned to the floor an exchange of three-pointers took place between Daye and Owumi. A double of further baskets from Owumi took Worcester into a 56-43 advantage at the end of the third quarter.

The white-hot form of Owumi continued in the final period of the game as he notched another ten points, including his fifth and sixth scores from outside the arc. The score stood at 69-54 with four minutes to go and the Sharks were unable to close to within single figures of their hosts. Fernandez, Kazlauskas and Ocitti all now chipped in with long distance successes as the game wound down to a tidy home victory.

Speaking after the win which saw his side rise to fourth place in the British Basketball League, Paul James was pleased with a professional display, saying: “It’s been a very satisfying weekend. It was just a matter today of winning the game, so I didn’t rotate the bench too much and we got the two points.”

Owumi top-scored for the Wolves with 29 points. Stan Ocitti impressed with double-double statistics of 19 points and a whopping 15 rebounds. Williams tallied 24 points for Sheffield, supported by 19 points from Daye.

Wolves’ next two outings will be long journeys north. They travel to Newcastle Eagles in the quarter-finals of the BBL Cup on Friday, followed by a trip to Glasgow Rocks on Sunday. The next game at the University of Worcester will be on Saturday 10 November, against Cheshire Jets.