WORCESTER Wolves' honeymoon period in the National Basketball Trophy was brought to an abrupt halt on Saturday as they lost 115-82 at home to the Teeside Mohawks.

The Mohawks, last year's trophy and conference double winners, boasted seven foreign quality players including three with an average height of 6ft 9in.

Wolves started the game very positively against a side that were champions of a division three above them and Ben Livingston hit two long range three pointers to send the home side into an early lead.

Rick Solvason and Rhys Hocking also found gaps in the Teeside defence and after seven minutes the home team led 18-17.

Following a time out Teeside used a full court press to control the lively offence of the Wolves.

Once again Worcester were successful in penetrating the press and Hocking drove superbly to the basket to score regularly.

As the game moved towards the half way mark Teeside started to settle and their powerful forwards were proving to be too strong for the Worcester defence.

The gap in the ability range was beginning to tell as Teeside simply looked physically too strong and by half time Worcester trailed 56-42.

Teeside enjoyed their best spell after the half-time break and the Worcester crowd were given great entertainment by the powerful northern outfit.

The Wolves continued to play with spirit and unlike past opponents of Teeside Worcester scored regularly with some very well worked baskets.

Gareth France made his home debut and impressed in the spells he had on-court.

Fotos again lit up the crowd with his breathtaking pace yet it was the form of Livinston and Solvason that was most notable for the home side.

Despite the defeat player coach Rick Solvason took positives from the game.

"We stuck to our game and did not collapse against an excellent side who have been together for a long time," he said.

Director of Operations Mick Donovan was quite clear about the future: "The most important thing about this experience for our young team is to learn something from it and use it to improve in the forthcoming years."

Scorers: Solvason 35, Livingston 12, Fotos 11, Hocking 8, Chiverton 2, Gordon 2, Vinsonneau 10, G. France, S. France.