Surrey Scorchers 75-77 Worcester Wolves

Saturday 13 February 2021

Worcester Wolves sent their fans into pre-Valentine’s Day raptures as they stormed back from a late nine-point deficit to snatch a heart-stopping 77-75 win at Surrey Scorchers on Saturday.

Brandon Anderson rampaged to a stunning 17 last-quarter points to finally nudge Wolves 75-74 ahead with just 19 seconds remaining in the match.

When Anderson sank the last of a marathon eleven free-throws during the final period the scoreboard stood at 77-74 with 4.8 seconds to go.

Worcester twice fouled to take time off the game clock and leave ex-Worcester guard Caylin Raftopoulos to split a pair of foul shots to give the chance of a last-gasp winner. The attempt failed and, fittingly, Anderson rebounded to close out a thrilling fightback victory.

“I’m really pleased for the players,” said Wolves’ coach Matt Newby. “Our team defence caused Surrey a lot of problems late on and gave us the possessions we needed to make our comeback.

“Brandon is very good in clutch situations and we found a way to keep getting him the ball. When someone’s flowing you just have to continue to back them. Today was a massive team effort from everyone.” 

An aggressive Mike Parks was in the thick of the early going. Jordan Williams jabbed the tip-off to Lamarr Kimble who duly fed the American centre. On the very next play Parks got in the way of the ball at half-court and raced to the hoop for his second score.

Williams launched a quarterback assist for Anderson to convert, Josh McSwiggan and Kimble found their range and Scorchers were calling for a time out trailing 13-2 by just three minutes into the evening.

Though ending the first quarter 25-14 to the good, Wolves then began to stagnate. Surrey’s one-time NBA draft-pick Ryan Richards had repeated success close to the basket and speedster Tony Hicks made his mark.

By half-time the tables had been turned, with the hosts now 42-38 to the good. Only Williams could reply offensively as the gap widened to 61-52 entering the last period.

Consecutive missed lay-ups by Anderson and Kimble and Raftopoulos sinking a demoralising three-pointer prompted a Worcester time out where a line was drawn in the sand, prior to the gripping finish to the contest.

Anderson and Williams led the scoring with 22 points apiece with the latter also grabbing an impressive 16 rebounds.

“Jordan pulled down some huge boards, even when he was being swarmed by defenders,” applauded Newby. “He did a great job back on his old-stomping ground, as did Henry Wilkins.”

The fixtures continue to come thick and fast for Wolves with a 5pm tip off on Wednesday 17 February at Cheshire Phoenix, who have recently added former Worcester star Matthew Bryan-Amaning to their roster, quickly followed by the hosting of Manchester Giants at the University of Worcester Arena next Friday.

“Cheshire will be confident after some good wins lately and it should be an exciting game. We’ll see some great matchups on the interior with Jordan and Mike going up against Matthew and Jimbo Lull as well as Cheshire’s fast guards competing against our perimeter players,” concluded Newby.