Worcester Wolves 74-72 Glasgow Rocks

Friday 26 April 2019

Worcester Wolves’ final home appearance of the 2018-19 British Basketball League season ended in the same way as their very first outing of the campaign at the University of Worcester Arena back in September, in victory.

While there have been plenty of lean times in-between, another large crowd on Friday was entertained by an exciting 74-72 success over in-form Glasgow Rocks.

Wolves moved ahead of their playoff-bound opponents in the second quarter and just managed to keep their noses in front the rest of the way to grab the win.

Coach Tony Garbelotto praised the performance, saying: “The guys played ridiculously hard today, all the way through. It was a great defensive effort. We played harder than we have for a month.

“Our target was to give the fans something to think about what could have been this season and we achieved that.”

Showing the form that had seen them drop just three of their last dozen matches, Glasgow established a 15-9 advantage before Worcester got into gear.

Robert Crawford produced a defence-freezing underhand pass for Deshawn Freeman to convert and then notched a score of his own to narrow Rock’s lead to 19-18 as the first quarter closed.

A quick five points for Miki Servera gave Wolves a 24-22 edge and his fellow Spaniard Alex Navajas widened the gap. Rocks were harried into throwing up an embarrassing airball while Crawford notched a three-pointer.

Lester Prosper turned a hand-off from Jordan Whelan into an authoritative dunk to finalise his side’s offensive explosion at 36-25 five minutes before half-time.

A 42-37 interval lead became a 59-55 advantage entering the final quarter.

Worcester confidence was on display in a series of neat moves. Navajas and Prosper combined big man plays to push defenders aside. The ball was swung around the court before Navajas sank a triple and the forward spun around with ease for a 71-67 lead with two minutes remaining.

By twenty seconds to go Glasgow had pulled level before Darell Combs sliced to the basket to nudge Wolves in front again at 73-71.

The hosts surrounded their attackers to deny late shot attempts and fire victory celebrations.

Freeman led the scoring with 14 points, closely followed by Prosper on 13. Servera and Navajas tallied 11 points apiece, with Crawford supplying 10.

Wolves conclude their fixtures this Sunday (5.30) at Cheshire Phoenix, with a guarantee that they will finish above bottom-placed Surrey Scorchers whatever the result.

“We don’t have much to play for on Sunday, but we would love to end on a high note,” added Garbelotto. 

“I’ve never felt that we were a team that should have been at the bottom of the league. We’ve made mistakes but we’ve got some good players here.

“This club is bigger than where we’ve finished.”