Cheshire Phoenix 90-97 Worcester Wolves

Worcester Wolves laid down a marker ahead of their BBL Cup Final against Cheshire Phoenix, at Arena Birmingham in a fortnight’s time, by overturning them 97-90 at their own court on Sunday.

Wolves travelled to Cheshire in buoyant mood, having lost only once in their last eleven outings. Their latest success propels them into the semi-finals of the BBL Trophy and leaves them as the sole team in the British Basketball League still in contention for all of the season’s four competitions.

Neither side was able to pull decisively clear of the other until the final moments. With less than a minute to play Wolves held a slender 87-83 lead.

Phoenix fouled repeatedly in order to regain possession, but Worcester’s leading scorers Alex Navajas and Michael Ojo maintained their perfect records from the free-throw line to seal the win.

Coach Paul James was pleased to get one over his team’s Cup Final foes, saying:

“I don’t think this has a direct bearing for Birmingham. But it does say that we know we can beat Cheshire because we’ve now played them twice and we’ve beaten them twice.

“However, they don’t know if they can beat us – they’ve played us in two different ways and lost both times. Today was a physical ugly game and we weren’t at our best, yet we still pulled out the win.”

The physical nature of the contest was set early. Dallin Bachynski rejected his fellow seven-footer CJ Getty’s first attempt. Getty bustled in his next shot but was then unable to prevent Bachynski floating in a triple over his outstretched hand.

Wolves’ initial game plan was disrupted when Elvisi Dusha was forced to the bench after being whistled for two quick fouls. The visitors trailed 22-24 by the close of the opening quarter.

Robert Gilchrist settled into a pattern of metronomic scoring to slot in a quartet of second-quarter baskets, while Ojo got off the mark with a double of three-pointers.

Phoenix held a slight 41-40 edge entering the second half. In the first half they had enjoyed a significant rebounding advantage, allowing them to capitalise on a series of second-chance shots. After the break, a re-energised Navajas and Bachynski held sway to swing the lead 67-63 in Wolves favour at the end of the third period.

Worcester stayed in front for the remainder of the evening, though having to continue to battle hard before being finally able to see off their belligerent hosts.

Navajas top-scored for Worcester with 20 points, as well as pulling down an impressive ten rebounds. Ojo followed closely behind with 19 points while Bachynski and Gilchrist tallied 16 and 15 points respectively.

Getty justified his BBL Player-of-the-Month award for December by dominating the Phoenix statistics with 31 points and 15 rebounds.

James gave more detail about what had taken place, saying:

“Cheshire killed us in the first half with thirteen offensive boards. I was mad about that. We spoke at half-time about what we needed to change.

“We did a better job of allowing only one shot per possession and got crucial stops when we needed to for a good performance in an ugly game.

When reminded about Wolves now being the last team standing in all of this year’s competitions, James replied:

“Leicester and Newcastle would need to have a collapse in form for us to go top-of-the-table, but we are certainly contending everywhere else. I’m really pleased that at the moment we are delivering what we set out to do at the start of the season, to be contenders in all competitions.”

Wolves’ last match before their big day out in Birmingham will take place at the University of Worcester Arena next Friday 19 January (7.30) when they host Manchester Giants.

“Brandon (Parrish) and George (Beamon) are both playing with ankle injuries and Michael dislocated his finger today. But they’re all tough. We’ll now take a couple of days off, prepare for Manchester as we would for any opponent and after that we’ll put our focus on the Cup Final,” added James.

Match report by Colin Taylor

Image Credit Razorlight Imagery