Worcester Wolves 86–86 Sheffield Sharks

Worcester Wolves find themselves locked together with Sheffield Sharks for the right to progress to the BBL Trophy Final after an exciting 86-86 tie in the first leg of their semi-final at the University of Worcester Arena on Wednesday.

Wolves struggled to stay with their visitors in the early going, falling into a double-digit hole that they were only able to climb out of as the final quarter approached, thereby keeping the pot boiling for Sunday’s return encounter in South Yorkshire.

The teams stood level at 11-11 six minutes into the evening. From there Worcester stalled on the offensive end, and leaked points at the other, to sink 16-27 into arrears.

By four minutes left in the first half, Sharks’ lead had maximised at 41-25 as Wolves were too often beaten to rebounds, gifting Sheffield numerous second-chance points.

At 18 seconds to go, respectability beckoned with the gap narrowed to 44-37. However, Sharks’ Chris Alexander responded with an and-one play and his fellow guard Edgar McKnight immediately intercepted a careless inbound pass, allowing veteran Mike Tuck to score as the half-time hooter sounded.

Worcester big men Alex Navajas and Robert Gilchrist began to bite back after the interval. Allied to George Beamon bursting into life with eleven third-quarter points, the deficit was reduced to 64-71 entering the last period.

Beamon brought a large home crowd alive by draining successive three-pointers. A Sheffield time-out did little to steady their ship as they fell victim to shot-clock violations and double-dribbles.

A Michael Ojo basket tied the sides at 82-82 with three minutes remaining. Tony Wroblicky fell to the floor and fumbled the ball out of bounds on Sharks’ next possession. A series of Navajas free-throws pushed Wolves 86-83 ahead before a McKnight triple placed the contest on a knife-edge.

Beamon led the scoring with 20 points, supported by Navajas and Gilchrist on 16 points apiece.

.Coach Paul James praised the resolve of his team, saying:

“We had a difficult start but I’m really pleased about how we clawed our way back into the match. We locked into our rebounding in the second half, showed some real defensive intensity and got things going offensively.

“It looked at one point if the tie was going to be beyond us, but we got the upper hand in the later stages and gave ourselves momentum for the return leg.”

Prior to the deciding second leg in Sheffield on Sunday (tip off 4pm), Wolves will travel to London Lions this Friday, (7.30pm), for league action.

Match report by Colin Taylor

Image credit Keith Hunt