WOLVES head coach Paul James hailed the size and strength of 7ft centre Dallin Bachynski after he scored a season-high 22 points in the club’s 97-86 win over Manchester Giants in the BBL on Sunday.
The giant Canadian also grabbed 13 rebounds at the Trafford Sportsdome as he imposed himself on the opposition throughout the evening, helping the visitors to their second league win of the campaign.
“This was a must-win game for us,” said James.
“We did a good job of controlling the tempo, playing with discipline on both offense and defence.
“It was great from Dallin. There’s not too many ‘bigs’ in this league with his size and strength, so it was great he made it count. He can do that every game,” he added.
Giants forward David Kadiri scored a quick-fire eight points to give his side an early lead, before Wolves’ George Beamon drew gasps from the crowd with a dribble that caused his mesmerised defender to drop to the floor.
He then found the returning Elvisi Dusha to sink a three-pointer, before finding Alex Navajas and scoring a couple of points of his own to put Wolves 23-16 to the good going into the second period.
The all-action Beamon then supplied a trio of scores for Bachynski to convert, before Dusha joined him in the assists tally as he drew opponents towards him before passing to an open Dominic Ives to coolly convert.
The visitors built on their 46-35 half-time advantage heading into the third quarter as triples from Brandon Parrish and Navajas sat either side of an impressive coast-to-coast basket from Trayvon Palmer.
Entering the final quarter already comfortably ahead 71-52, Worcester sealed the win as scores for Bachynski were accompanied by numerous dashes to the hoop from Ashton Khan, who is currently taking part in a three-day Team England training camp ahead of next April’s Commonwealth Games, in Australia.
Palmer and Beamon scored 18 and 16 points respectively, followed by Khan with 14.
The win comes off the back of a 94-71 defeat to Leicester Riders at the University of Worcester Arena on Friday night, where Palmer and Beamon led the Wolves scorers with 17 and 14 points respectively.
Wolves take on Surrey Scorchers at Surrey Sports Park on Sunday (tip-off 2pm).