WORCESTER Wolves head coach Paul James has called for his squad to play with more intensity in tomorrow’s British Basketball League home clash against Leeds Force (7.30pm).

Wolves have lost their last three outings at the University of Worcester Arena, including last Sunday’s embarrassing 101-91 defeat against bottom-of-the-table Plymouth Raiders.

It was a setback for third-placed Wolves who had produced a battling display in a 95-88 defeat to unbeaten leaders Newcastle Eagles at Sport Central.

“We’re making life hard for ourselves,” admitted James.

“It was a very disappointing weekend, but it was even more disappointing to lose at home.

"Over the years, we’ve made the arena a bit of a fortress.

"We gave up way too many points and we’re not going to win many games giving up 101 points like we did against Plymouth.”

He added: “If you come out and you don’t play with the energy and passion that we need, teams are going to do what Plymouth did to us.

“It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that we gave ourselves a chance by being more aggressive, playing a bit more up-tempo offensively. But, by then it’s too late.”

Perris Blackwell once more headed Wolves’ scorers with 23 points against Plymouth followed by Pavol Losonsky on 20 but it was their fourth defeat in their last five matches.

However, Worcester have won all four league meetings against Force, by an average of 24 points, since the Yorkshire club joined the top-flight last season.

Despite tasting defeat against Cheshire Phoenix, Matt Newby’s Force should be confident after winning three league games in a row for the first time, prior to that reverse.

James said: “We need to look at our defensive rotations and how we get those five up to playing with the intensity we did against Plymouth in the fourth quarter, but doing that from the start. There’s a lot we need to do.”

Wolves cruised to a 92-66 home win against Force at the arena when the teams met last month.

Wolves forward Ben Eaves said: ““Leeds play hard and never quit and they have had success as of late so we need to be focused and not let them find their rhythm.

"We have not started games well as of late with the exception of Newcastle game when there was a sense of urgency.

“Defensively we have been giving up too many points, especially in transition, so I think we need to focus on starting well and building a good flow to the game and begin as we mean to go on, instead of having to recover later in the game.

Force’s Kwan Waller leads the league in steals, with 2.1-per-game, and the visitors might feel tomorrow’s fixture represents their best chance so far to topple James’ men.

Force guard Dwayne Camille said: “We started the game against Cheshire Phoenix quite slowly, which seems like a repeated factor in our losses thus far in the season.

“Finding a way to start our games more aggressively will help us gain strong momentum into the start of games, which can be kept consistent throughout the game.

“We started the last game against Worcester Wolves quite slowly and as a team were not as well connected as we are now, and I believe when we come out aggressive, composed and confident we put ourselves in great positions to get a win against teams.”

Wolves are also in league action on Saturday, travelling down the M5 to face the Bristol Flyers (7.30pm).