WORCESTER Wolves secured a mouth-watering BBL Trophy quarter-final against the Newcastle Eagles after coming back from behind to beat to beat the London Lions in the first round.
After a disappointing first half, which saw Wolves concede more than 50 points, the BBL Championship leaders hit back when it mattered to grind out an 82-73 win and earn their ninth win in a row in all competitions.
Wolves will face Newcastle Eagles away from home on Friday, February 21 in a bid to reach the semi-finals of the competition.
Director of basketball Paul James was pleased to see his comeback from a tough start which saw their arrival to the Copper Box Arena delayed because of traffic.
“Our bus being delayed probably had an effect on how we began the game,” he said. “We were initially slow defensively, giving up 50 points in the first half. But after that we settled down and our defence kicked in.
“We’ve had a tough draw having to come to London and now we will have to travel to Newcastle in the quarter-finals, but we’ve never been afraid to play anybody and we will carry on and do what we have to do in order to progress.”
Despite a slow start into the match, Wolves’ Alex Owumi fired his team into action with a three pointer which led to the leaders have a 28-23 lead at the end of the first quarter.
But the home side dominated proceedings in the second quarter as they massed up 27 points in the ten minutes of play with Wolves unable to stop an impressive Chez Marks dictate the play on court. At half time the Lions led 50-47.
Wolves soon drawed level in the second half thanks to a basket from Zaire Taylor and unlike the second quarter the visitor’s defence stifled the home sides scoring options as they were just restricted to just ten points. This allowed Wolves to regain control leading 66-60 going into the final quarter.
Lions came back in it strongly by scoring the first seven points of the ten. But a timeout from James helped steady the ship as Taylor, Will Creekmore and Kalil Irving got the points to steer Wolves to yet another win.
**WORCESTER Wolves’ title chances also received a significant boost during the weekend when title challengers Leicester Riders suffered back to back defeats in a dismal weekend.
On Friday (January 31) they lost out in a two-point thriller against Newcastle Eagles before slumping to 95-79 defeat at home to the Durham Wildcats sending them down to fourth place.
Wolves now sit four points clear of Newcastle Eagles and Sheffield Sharks who both have one game in hand over the leaders.
