Worcester Wolves 76–81 Leicester Riders

Worcester Wolves put last week’s Cup Final disappointment to one side with a battling performance against the leaders of the British Basketball League on Friday

Leicester Riders came into the encounter at the University of Worcester Arena boasting a record of just two losses versus an impressive fifteen victories, including a double of wins over seventh-placed Wolves.

This third meeting between the Midlands rivals was the closest yet, with the hosts coming back from several double-figure deficits to be within just a single point of their visitors in the last moments of the evening before eventually succumbing to a 76-81 reversal.

It was five minutes into the match when Leicester edged into their first lead at 10-9 following a quartet of baskets from Pierre Hampton. Another couple of scores from the dangerous forward widened the advantage.

George Beamon secured a rare four-point play with a three-pointer and a bonus free throw to keep Wolves in contention at 20-26 going into the second quarter.

The next half-dozen points went Riders way to maximise their lead at 32-20, before Worcester began to revive on the back of a nine-point blitz from Michael Ojo and repeated trips to the free-throw line.

Trayvon Palmer levelled matters at 41-41 and then cheekily inbounded the ball to himself off the back of his defender for the go-ahead basket.

Wolves’ momentum carried over the half-time break with the lead stretched to 50-41 after two minutes of the third period had elapsed.

But Leicester would not be put down. Intense pressure on every Wolves possession led to turnovers and rushed shot attempts, with only one more score over the remainder of the third quarter. In the meantime Riders pulsated to a 62-53 lead.

By six minutes to play Leicester captain Tyler Bernadini’s fifth three-pointer had aided a 72-61 advantage. It was now Worcester’s turn to stiffen. When Palmer tipped back in a Brandon Parrish miss the sides had closed to 77-73.

A packed crowd were brought to their feet when Palmer laid on a triple for Elvisi Dusha with 33 seconds remaining to further narrow the gap. But the comeback was snuffed out by another Bernadini success and Parrish’s last-chance three-pointer going wide of the target.

Ojo led the Worcester scoring with 16 points, closely followed by Palmer and Parrish on 15 and 14 points respectively.

Coach Paul James praised his team’s resolve, saying:

“We’re disappointed to have lost. Nevertheless, we played hard and came back well at several points against a very good Leicester team.

“We did okay initially, had a better second quarter and really got going to build a good lead at the start of the third quarter.

“After that we committed far too many errors and fell behind. But even then we came back into the match and but for not executing our plays at the end we could have seen a different result. I’m encouraged by our performance.”

Wolves travel to bottom-of-the-table Leeds Force this Sunday, (tip off 4pm), before readying themselves to welcome Sheffield Sharks to the University of Worcester Arena on Wednesday, 07 February, for the first leg of their BBL Trophy semi-final. Tickets are available here

James added: “Leeds may not have a great record but we can’t take anyone for granted. They’ve got good players and keep competing. We need to get back to winning ways.”

Match report by Colin Taylor

Image credit Razorlight Imagery