WORCESTER Wolves hit a century of points for the third game running as they kept up the chase for their first BBL Championship title.
Paul James’ side returned after a fortnight’s break by recording their third straight win with a 101-79 victory over bottom-of-the-table Surrey United on Friday (December 13).
The win put Wolves back to the top of the BBL Championship until Sunday evening when Sheffield Sharks beat Birmingham Knights.
Despite losing all 13 league games played before Friday’s encounter, it was Surrey who started the brighter out of the two teams as point guard Elvisi Dusha gave them an early 10-6 lead.
Wolves battled back to lead 18-12 with new signing Kai Williams opening his account with a triple. But Surrey then fought back as an 11-4 run helped them regain the lead at 23-22 before a close-range basket from Stefan Djukic gave Wolves a 24-23 lead going into the second period.
Seven points from Andreas Schreiber and a brace of three-pointers from Caylin Raftopoulos suddenly created daylight between the teams at 39-30. And Wolves stretched their lead further when Kalil Irving nailed a rare score and accepted an assist from Zaire Taylor to help Wolves to a 54-34 lead.
Leading 62-41 at half time, Wolves killed off the contest with a 14-2 surge in a five minute spell of the third period.
With victory in the bag, James used the fourth quarter to give some game time to some of his younger players which allowed Surrey to add some respectability to the final score.
After the game Worcester Wolves director of basketball Paul James said he was pleased to get another win on the board after making a rather slow start.
“In the first quarter we were feeling our way back after a two-week layoff so our slow start was kind of expected,” he said.
“In the second quarter we raised our intensity, got some stops on defence, executed our plays and finally broke the game open,
“I was pleased that I was able to give minutes to some of our younger players and extended court time to Stefan Djukic and Andreas Schreiber. Caylin Raftopoulous, Daniel Belgrave and Calvin Morant-Hudson also did a good job for us tonight.”
Wolves return to action on Friday (December 20) when they host London Lions to the University of Worcester Arena before another home game against Midland rivals Birmingham Knights on Saturday, December 28.