WOLVES head coach Paul James has delivered a rallying call to his side ahead of the British Basketball League play-offs against London Lions.
James has called for the Wolfpack to come out in force for the home leg of their BBL quarter-final on Friday (tip-off 7.30pm) at the University of Worcester Arena before the trip to the capital for the return leg on Sunday.
Wolves rounded off their regular-season fixtures with a scrappy 90-75 defeat at Glasgow Rocks on Sunday. It left them with a final 19-14 win-loss record in seventh place in the BBL.
“We lost to Lions in our very first fixture of the season but after that we beat them twice at their place,” said James.
“We match up well against them. This is the most exciting tie of the play-offs.
“We’re hoping for yet another big Worcester crowd to get behind us in the home leg. The players definitely feed off the support.
“Our fans have been special all year and can now help us get an edge ahead of the second leg.”
Though behind by double-digits for large parts of their game in Scotland, Worcester battled back to trail Glasgow by just 71-77 with five minutes to play before eventually succumbing.
Trayvon Palmer and George Beamon combined for a dozen early points and Robert Gilchrist produced a baseline drive and slam to nudge Wolves 18-17 ahead with a minute remaining in the opening quarter.
But a prolonged spell of careless ball-handling was pounced upon by Rocks in a 14-3 tear over the next four minutes that left the visitors reeling.
By half-time the deficit stood at 32-44. Gilchrist toiled close to the basket and George Marshall came to life with a pair of three-pointers, but the arrears stayed steady at 58-69 entering the final period.
A Michael Ojo scoop put the Wolves man onto the scoresheet for the first time and got his side within a half-dozen points of their hosts, before turnovers and wayward shooting re-emerged to confirm the loss.
Beamon with 22 points and 13 rebounds and Gilchrist on 21 points and 11 rebounds dominated the Worcester statistics.
Despite the defeat, coach James applauded the application of his team.
“Rocks played very well today whereas that was probably our shakiest display in our last six or seven games,” said the coach.
Wolves were hampered by the second-half withdrawals to injury of Alex Navajas and Dallin Bachynski, but James is hopeful both players will be ready to play their part in the playoffs.
“Alex took a hit to the little finger on his left hand and Dallin has a bruised thumb which limited his game, but we’ll look to get things sorted this week,” he added.
